Snow conditions 30.1.2015

Up to yesterday afternoon, the weather in the mountains was dry and relatively cold. On sunny days, the snow cover on sun-exposed slopes softened on the surface during the day and froze at night. On Thursday night, it started snowing from the west and by today noon, when the main precipitation had passed, 50 to nearly 80 cm of snow fell in the western Julian Alps, 30 to 50 cm elsewhere in the Julians and in the western Karawanks, and 10 to 30 cm in the rest of our mountains. It snowed onto a crusty and hard, sometimes icy base. Above about 1000 m, the snow was dry and bonded poorly to the base. Lower down, the snow was wet, mostly falling on bare ground. A southwesterly wind blew, turning northward in the afternoon. The wind created new drifts and built cornices.

At 2500 m elevation in the Julian Alps there is around 180 cm of snow, at 1500 m around 80 cm, elsewhere 40 to around 70 cm.

The snowpack is soft and loose. There are many drifts. Beneath the new snow are old, potentially unstable slabs.

Avalanche danger has increased to 4 in the Julian Alps and western Karawanks, to 3 elsewhere in our mountains.

The snowpack is unstable and poorly bonded to the base.

Spontaneous release of numerous small, also medium-sized avalanches, and individual large ones is expected. Avalanches will mainly release from steeper slopes, more frequently in areas where more snow fell. You can trigger a snow avalanche already with minor additional loading of the snowpack even on less steep slopes.

New snow will slab over the old crusty or hard base.



Snowing will stop this evening. Tomorrow it will partly clear. A moderate westerly wind will blow, turning more southwesterly during the day. It will transport new snow into drifts, forming mainly on the north and east sides of ridges and passes. Temperatures will be below zero. Therefore, the new snow will settle and metamorphose only slowly. On Saturday night and Sunday daytime it will snow again, around 10 cm of dry snow expected.

Avalanche danger will decrease only slowly.

Next report will be published on Monday, 2.2.2015.



General avalanche danger is 4 on the European 5-level scale.



Source: ARSO