Snow conditions 21.2.2014

After Tuesday's thaw, which caused faster transformation and settling of the snowpack, it snowed again on Wednesday. Initially, the snow line was at around 1700 m above sea level, so below this altitude the snowpack settled considerably. Overnight into Thursday, the snow line dropped to around 800 m. 20 to about 40 cm of snow fell, below 1600 m above sea level and in the eastern part of our mountains 10 to 20 cm. Locally, due to the stormy nature of the precipitation, graupel also fell. The snow bonded relatively well to the base, which was mostly loose in the high mountains, soaked from rain lower down, but locally the bond is quite weak due to graupel. The southwest wind weakened during the day and turned into a light to moderate northeast wind. This only transported snow into wind slabs on wind-exposed spots. By today, the snowpack has settled somewhat and stabilized. It warmed up a bit again, the freezing level is at around 1900 m above sea level.



The snowpack mostly extends to around 700 m above sea level.

Snow depth is highly variable especially in the high mountains due to wind.

The most snow is above 1800 m in the western Julian Alps, where it exceeds 700 cm, elsewhere in the Julians up to about 540 cm, in the western and central Karawanks and Kamnik-Savinja Alps around 320 cm. At 1500 m, it is up to about 330 cm in the Julians and western Karawanks, elsewhere 100 to 150 cm. The snow is soft and sinks deeply. There is a lot of wind-blown snow and wind slabs.

The avalanche danger is currently mostly 3rd degree.

The snowpack is mainly conditionally unstable. There will be little spontaneous avalanching, only individual small avalanches from steeper slopes may release. However, an avalanche can be triggered quickly with minor load on the snowpack. Steep and moderately steep slopes and areas with wind-blown snow are especially dangerous.



Tonight and tomorrow it will snow in the mountains. The snow line will be between 500 and 700 m above sea level. By tomorrow evening (Saturday), snowing will mostly stop. 20 to 40 cm of snow may fall, in the eastern Karawanks and on Pohorje 10 to 20 cm.

The freezing level will drop to around 1000 m above sea level. On Sunday it will be mostly clear, freezing level around 1300 m above sea level.

The sun will melt snow on sun-exposed slopes even above the zero isotherm altitude. New snow will settle quickly. Due to nighttime freezing, a surface crust will form.

Due to new snow, the avalanche danger will temporarily increase to 4th degree by Saturday evening in the Julian Alps and western Karawanks. Elsewhere it will remain 3rd degree. On Sunday during the day, the snowpack will slowly stabilize.

The next snowpack report will be issued on Monday, 24.2.2014 in the morning.



General avalanche danger is 3rd degree on the European 5-level scale.



Source: ARSO