Snow conditions 8.11.2010

In the second half of the past week, the weather calmed down.
At first, it cooled slightly and the snow in the mountains froze. However, already on Friday, with the influx of warmer air, the snow level rose again, reaching its highest on Saturday, above 3000 m above sea level. A considerable amount of snow melted, especially on sun-exposed slopes. On Sunday, it cooled slightly at higher elevations, even more by Monday morning, when the snow level was around 2300 m above sea level. During precipitation, some snow fell again in the high mountains. In the Julijci up to about 30 cm, elsewhere much less. The snow line was around 2000 m above sea level.
In the high mountains of the Julian Alps, there is currently up to about 70 cm of snow, below 2000 m the snow decreases rapidly. Elsewhere in our mountains, there is considerably less snow. The southwesterly wind created wind slabs on wind-exposed locations. Avalanche danger in the high mountains of the Julijci, above about 2000 m elevation, is degree 2, elsewhere in our mountains degree 1. Mainly places with wind-packed snow and steeper slopes are dangerous. The snow is soft and light, under the new snow there is locally a hard base in places.
Today during the day and until mid-week it will be variable to mostly cloudy with occasional precipitation. The snow line will lower slightly more, to about 1100 m by Tuesday night, but will rise again to 1600 m on Tuesday during the day. So it will still snow in the mountains, but there will also be longer breaks in between, so the snow will settle in the meantime. The wind will mainly create new wind slabs in the high mountains. The next report will be issued on Friday, 12 November.

General avalanche danger is moderate, i.e. degree 2 on the European five-degree scale.

Source: ARSO