4.04.2012
On Tuesday afternoon light precipitation began to appear in the west, intensifying slightly overnight into Wednesday. In the Julian Alps up to 5 cm of snow fell by Wednesday morning, with the snow line around 1900 m above sea level. Lower down the snow melted.
The old snow cover is mostly compacted in depth, in shady locations mostly covered with a crust that bears human weight. On this base up to 5 cm of new snow in the Julians. Lower down the snow is soggy. The freezing level is around 2300 m above sea level.
The compacted snow cover extends in gullies mostly to around 1200 m above sea level, on sun-exposed slopes it is bare even above 2000 m. At 1500 m above sea level the compacted snow cover is only on plateaus and in gullies, with up to about 15 cm of snow. Above 2000 m there is up to about 80 cm of snow in the Julian Alps. Avalanche danger is currently still 1st degree. The snow cover is mostly well transformed and stable.
Cloudy and foggy weather will continue, only on Pohorje and in the eastern Karawanks there will be some sunny weather especially today. Occasional precipitation, snow line mostly around 2000 m above sea level. Above this elevation up to 30 cm of snow will fall by Friday morning in the western Julians, elsewhere up to about 10 cm. The new snow will be wet and will bond relatively well to the base, only on hard and icy surfaces the bond between new snow and old base will be weaker. Therefore avalanche danger will gradually increase to 2nd degree especially in the Julian Alps.
Elsewhere it will mostly remain low.
New report will be issued on Friday, 6.4.2012.
General avalanche danger is 2nd degree on the European five-grade scale.
Source: ARSO