Snow conditions 13.1.2014

Even at the end of the week and this morning, the weather in the mountains was dry. There was more sun especially on Sunday, on Saturday more in the high mountains and in the eastern part of our mountains, on Sunday everywhere.

Today there was again more cloudiness in the mid-mountains and in the western Julian Alps. Temperatures were mostly above freezing up to about 2400 m elevation. The snow cover softened during the day on sun-exposed slopes and plateaus, and froze overnight. In shaded areas, the snow remained poorly transformed.

The most snow is in the high mountains of the Julian Alps, up to about 220 cm, in higher areas of the Karawanks and Kamnik-Savinja Alps locally about 110 cm. At 1500 m, it is up to about 90 cm in the Julian Alps, elsewhere less. Lower down, the snow has also decreased. Significant snow cover starts at about 1600 m elevation or even higher.

The snow cover is mostly crusty or hard, only in shaded areas, especially in the high mountains, it is still soft. During the day it softens on sun-exposed slopes, at night it freezes.

The avalanche danger is 2nd degree in the high mountains, above about 1500 m, elsewhere mostly 1st degree.

The snow cover is relatively stable, more unstable in shaded areas and especially in places with wind-packed snow and on sufficiently steep slopes, where you can trigger an avalanche especially with greater additional load on the snow cover.

Tomorrow it will be cloudy everywhere. Precipitation will start to appear in the western part of our mountains and spread to most of the mountain world by night. The snow line will mostly be above about 1000 m, only in the Julian Alps locally a bit lower. By Wednesday morning, 10 to about 30 cm of snow may fall in the Julian Alps, western Karawanks, and Kamnik-Savinja Alps, elsewhere less. Since it will snow mainly on a hard or crusty base in the high mountains, the new snow is not expected to bond well with the base and therefore the possibility of avalanches will increase slightly. The southwest wind will form cornices only in wind-exposed areas.

The next snow cover report will be issued on Wednesday, 15.1.2014.



General avalanche danger is 2nd degree on the European 5-level scale.



Snow depth:

200 cm Kredarica (2515 m)

95 cm Vogel (1540 m)

9 cm Krvavec (1740 m)



Source: ARSO