3.03.2014
At the end of the week, the weather was variable, with almost no sunshine. There were occasional light precipitations mainly in the western part of our mountains, where from Friday morning to this morning a total of up to around 30 cm of snow fell, elsewhere from 5 to 10 cm, sometimes nothing at all. The snow line was at around 1200 m above sea level. The freezing level was between 1200 and 1500 m.
The snow cover continues to settle and transform. The new snow accumulated gradually and bonded progressively with itself. Only the connection between the previous base and the snow of the last three days is somewhat weaker. Wind created wind slabs on exposed locations.
The snow cover mostly reaches around 700 m above sea level.
Snow depth is particularly variable 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 around 530 cm, in the western and central Karawanks and Kamnik-Savinja Alps around 300 cm. At 1500 m it is up to around 340 cm in the Julians and western Karawanks, elsewhere from 100 to 150 cm. The snow cover is mostly soft on top, with the upper layer thicker in the western part of our mountains. Below the snow line, snow is wet and mostly soft, as there was no night freezing due to cloudiness. There is a lot of wind-blown snow and slabs. On wind-exposed sites, snow is quite drifted.
Avalanche danger is mostly 2nd degree, only in the high mountains of the Julian Alps 3rd degree.
The snow cover is mostly moderately stable. There is too little new snow to increase the risk. Mainly dangerous are sites with wind-blown snow on steeper slopes.
Conditions are somewhat different in the high mountains of the Julian Alps.
There is more new snow there, which can release under minor snow cover loading. Especially dangerous are steep slopes and sites with wind-blown snow.
Today, especially in the high mountains, there will initially be some sunny weather, clouding over during the day, and in the afternoon and tomorrow mostly cloudy and foggy. There will be occasional light snowfall, but only a few centimeters of snow will fall. The freezing level will remain between 1200 and 1500 m above sea level. Snow will transform and slowly stabilize, avalanche risk will gradually decrease also in the high mountains of the Julian Alps.
The next snow cover report will be issued on Wednesday, 5.3.2014 in the morning.
General avalanche danger is 3rd degree on the European five-level scale.
Source: ARSO