Wind slab
- Above treeline
Favorable conditions.Caution urged towards small drifts.
Favorable conditions.Caution urged towards small drifts.
Fresh and older snowdrift accumulations are often triggerable above the treeline on shady slopes by one sole skier. Danger zones occur in steep ridgeline terrain, mostly on W/N/E facing slopes and behind protruberances in the landscape. The risks of being swept along and forced to take a fall outweigh those of being buried in snow masses. In isolated cases, small slab avalanches can be triggered on high-altitude extremely steep shady slopes, usually by large additional loading and where the snow is shallow.
Up to 5-15 cm of fresh snow is expected. At high altitudes it will often be transported. The fresh snow and drifts will be deposited esp. on steep shady slopes atop soft layers and are prone to triggering. On encrusted and moistened sunny slopes the fresh snow will bond better. All in allm, the old snowpack is well consolidated. At lower altitudes the fresh snow will fall on bare ground.
As a result of southerly foehn wind it will remain dry until after midnight before rainfall and snowfall spread over the entire land. The snowfall level in early morning will lie at 1100-1300m. On Sunday, some snowfall until midday, then clouds will disperse. At 2000m: -3 degrees at midday. Strong SW winds to start with, later shifting to westerly.
Due to foehn wind and snowdrifts generating, avalanche danger levels can increase
Bulletin data: Avalanche Warning Service Vorarlberg (CC BY 4.0)