Snow conditions 23.12.2013

Even at the end of the week it was mostly dry, but quite cloudy and foggy, only in the eastern part of our mountains was there occasionally some sun. In the high elevations it cooled a bit more and today the freezing level is at an elevation of about 900 m. Due to high humidity, the snowpack transformed faster, partly even in gullies. There were no significant precipitations.

There is little snow in the mountains. In the high mountains of the Julian Alps there is 80 to about 110 cm of snow. At 1500 m it is 20 to about 40 cm across the mountains. There is a lot of wind-packed snow, wind-exposed and sunny locations are bare in many places. Significant snow cover starts on sun-facing slopes at about 1600 m elevation, in shaded areas much lower. The snow is mostly crusty and icy in places. Avalanche danger is level 1. The snowpack is mostly stable, only in places with wind-packed snow and on steep slopes, especially in gullies, smaller avalanches can still be triggered with greater load on the snowpack.

Today and tomorrow it will be dry and quite cloudy, only in the east partly clear. On Wednesday, precipitation will start intensifying from the west, spreading over all of Slovenia by Thursday night, weakening from the west by Friday night, but on Friday it will still occur mainly in the eastern part of our mountains. The snow line will initially be at about 1300 m above sea level, gradually lowering to about 800 m. By Friday morning, 30 to 50 cm of snow can fall in the Julian Alps and western Karawanks, somewhat less in the Savinja Alps, eastern Karawanks and on Pohorje, where it will snow into Friday, and the snow line will then drop to about 500 m elevation. It will snow onto a mostly crusty and hardened base, so the bond between old and new snow will be poor.

Especially above 1500 m, avalanche danger will increase, in the Julian Alps and western Karawanks this threshold will likely be at about 1300 m.

The next snowpack report will be published on Friday, 27.12.2013.



General avalanche danger is level 1 on the European 5-level scale.



Source: ARSO