Gruyère

Snowpack

Thursday’s new snow and snowdrift is prone to triggering, especially at high altitude in the east. In the other regions, some of the somewhat older snowdrift layers at high altitude and in the high Alpine regions are lying on angular weak layers. Human-triggered avalanches may occur in these upper layers of the snowpack. Otherwise, the snowpack structure is mostly favourable, and hardly any fractures deeper in the snowpack are expected.

Below approximately 2200 m, the snowpack will remain weakened by the influence of the mild temperatures, especially in the east, where it will be a cloudy night. Wet avalanches are still possible. In addition, medium-sized and in some cases large gliding avalanches are still possible in all regions, except on the southern flank of the Alps.

Weather forecast until Friday, 26.01.2024

It will mostly be a clear night except in the east. In the late morning, there will continue to be clear spells, especially in the east. Otherwise, precipitation will set in from the northwest. The snowfall level will drop from 2200 m to 1800 m by the evening. On the southern flank of the Alps, it will remain fairly sunny the whole day.

New snow

A few centimetres of new snow are expected on the Northern Alpine Ridge and in northern Grisons above approximately 2200 m by Friday afternoon.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, +4 °C, before dropping in the afternoon.

Wind

In the north, there will be a strong westerly wind, while in the high Alpine regions, there will be a strong northwesterly wind.

Weather review for Thursday, 25.01.2024

In the north and east, there was snowfall above around 2000 m. In Valais and Ticino, it was fairly sunny after a partly clear night.

New snow

From Wednesday afternoon to Thursday afternoon, the following amounts of new snow were registered above approximately 2400 m:

• eastern part of the northern flank of the Alps, the region of Davos, Silvretta, Samnaun: 15 to 30 cm;
• central part of the northern flank of the Alps, other parts of northern Grisons, central Grisons: 5 to 15 cm;
• elsewhere: less or no snow.

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, between +1 °C in the north and +4 °C in the south.

Wind

There were westerly to northerly winds.

• These were widely strong during the night.
• During the day, they were weak to moderate on the northern flank of the Alps, and moderate to strong in the other regions.

TrendSaturday and Sunday

The snow will stop in the north during Friday night into Saturday. The snowfall level will drop to around 1400 m in the east and to around 1700 m in the west by the end of the precipitation. A total of 10 to 20 cm of snow will fall above approximately 2000 m on the Northern Alpine Ridge from the Bernese Oberland to the Alpstein; smaller amounts of snowfall are expected elsewhere. It will remain dry in the south. During the day, there will be some last remaining cloud cover in the east; elsewhere it will be mostly sunny. On Sunday, it will be mostly sunny and very mild. The zero-degree level will be at 3000 m. There will be mostly light westerly to northerly winds.

The avalanche danger will decrease. Snowdrift accumulations will represent the main danger. There may be human-triggered dry avalanches in places, especially at high altitude and in the high Alpine regions. Gliding avalanches are still possible, even large ones. As a result of warming during the day and solar radiation, wet avalanches are also expected, especially on sunny slopes.