Snow conditions 20.1.2014

On Saturday and Sunday it was cloudy and foggy in the mountains with precipitation. The snow line fluctuated between 1200 and 1800 m. A strengthened wind from southern directions blew, carrying snow above 2000 m and forming wind slabs on the northern and eastern sides of ridges and passes.

The freezing level was still around 1300 m on Thursday and rose to around 2000 m over the weekend. The old snowpack settled, got wet and slowly transformed, above around 1800 m, especially in the Julian Alps, it also thickened considerably. There will be no significant precipitation today.

In the Julian Alps above 2000 m, at least around 30 cm fell every day since Friday, totaling locally over 1 m, and even much more new snow in the western Julian Alps! Also in the Kamnik-Savinja Alps above 2000 m, locally up to over 70 cm could have fallen. Elsewhere in the mountains and below 2000 m there was quite a bit of rain in between and sleet in places, above around 1500 m up to a couple of tens of centimeters of wet snow fell.

The most snow is above 2000 m in the western Julian Alps, where it exceeds 350 cm, elsewhere in the Julian Alps up to around 300 cm, in the higher parts of the Karawanks and Kamnik-Savinja Alps locally around 200 cm.

At 1500 m in the Julian Alps up to around 150 cm, elsewhere less. The snow here is mostly soft and soaked and sinks deeply. There are many wind slabs, on wind-exposed higher terrain the snow is quite wind-packed.

The avalanche danger is degree 4 in the high mountains of the Julian Alps, elsewhere in areas with a settled snowpack degree 3, in lower elevations where there is less snow, degree 1.

The snowpack is potentially unstable and can be triggered by minor additional stress. We also expect spontaneous release of small and medium-sized avalanches on sufficiently steep slopes.

Steeper slopes are particularly dangerous, and below 2000 m the soaked snow layer may initially creep automatically even on gentler slopes.

From today until the end of the week, precipitation will be rare and light. Winds will be weak, initially from the east, from mid-week mainly from the southwest.

Temperatures will gradually drop, the freezing level will be around 1300 m on Wednesday, by Friday around 800 m. The snowpack will mainly settle and gradually transform below 2000 m, while processes will be slower in higher areas.

Therefore, for the first few days, there will still be a high avalanche danger especially in the higher parts of the Julian Alps, western Karawanks and Kamnik-Savinja Alps. Visiting the high mountains will be dangerous.

The next snowpack report will be issued on Wednesday, 22.1.2014.



The general avalanche danger is considerable, i.e. degree 4 on the European 5-level scale.



Snow depth:

300 cm Kredarica (2515 m)

145 cm Vogel (1540 m)

20 cm Krvavec (1740 m)

2 cm Rateče (864 m)



Source: ARSO