Lower Tauern North

Storm winds and small snowdrift accumulations

Storm winds and small snowdrift accumulations

Snowdrift danger above the treeline is MODERATE, below that altitude danger is LOW, but storm winds vary hugely over smallest spaces. Danger zones of fresh snowdrift accumulations are frequent between forest rims and terrain distant from ridgelines. Gullies, bowls and protruberances are the potential hot spots. Further up the terrain is windblown. Avalanches are generally small-sized.

The latest fresh snow from Friday (20 cm) is being transformed to drifts by storm winds, increasingly prone to triggering with ascending altitude. Exposed terrain is windblown, wind-pressed or melt-freeze encrusted. The new snowdrift accumulations lie deposited atop encrusted surfaces or old powder which is a potential weak layer. More deeply embedded layers in the snowpack (around the upper crust of the old snowpack) are currently not avalanche-relevant.

Sunday will bring heavy storm winds. In exposed zones, gale-strength gusts (80-100 km/hr), on Saturday night intermittent snowfall (5-10 cm, heavily windblown). In the afternoon on Sunday, clouds will disperse, temperatures drop. At 2000 m: -8 degrees and dropping. On Monday, snowfall will set in during the course of the day. In the northern barrier cloud regions, intensively (15-35 cm in 24 hours), accompanied by storm-strength NW winds. At 2000 m: -8 degrees.

Increasing avalanche danger due to abundant fresh snow between Monday and Wednesday