2.02.2015
On Saturday it was variably cloudy in the mountains, with occasional local snowfall in the afternoon, up to 5 cm of snow. On Sunday it was cloudy and there was snowfall again in places, up to about 10 cm of snow. On Saturday a moderate westerly wind blew, on Sunday a relatively weak easterly. New cornices formed mainly on Saturday on the eastern sides of ridges and passes. Temperature was below zero throughout. The snow that fell on Friday slowly settled.
At 2500 m altitude in the Julian Alps there is about 190 cm of snow, at 1500 m about 90 cm, elsewhere from 50 to about 70 cm.
The snowpack is soft in sheltered spots, mostly crusty in wind-exposed areas. There are many cornices, ridges are quite wind-scoured in many places, sometimes hard or even icy.
Avalanche danger is mostly 3rd degree, only lower where it snowed on bare ground 2nd degree.
The snowpack is potentially quite unstable and poorly bonded to the substrate. An avalanche can be triggered quickly even with minor loading of the snowpack. Steeper slopes and wind-loaded snow areas are particularly dangerous. Spontaneous release of smaller avalanches from steeper slopes is also expected. New snow will slab on the old crusty or hard base.
Today partly clear with variable cloudiness. Wind relatively weak. Temperature below zero. Tomorrow mostly cloudy. Local snow showers possible in the afternoon. Locally up to 5 cm snow. Wind will increase slightly.
The snowpack will settle a little more, transformation slow.
Next report on Wednesday, 4.2.2015.
General avalanche danger 3rd degree on the European 5-level scale.
Source: ARSO