Snow conditions in the mountains 12.4.2013

In fairly sunny weather the snow cover in the greater part of our mountains has transformed more rapidly. The snow line has risen to an altitude of around 2300 m by today. The snow has crustified during the day and frozen at night. The surface crust has strengthened. Only in shaded locations in the high mountains has the snow remained dry. Lower down the snow has melted and become soaked during the day.

At 2500 m in the Julian Alps there is around 450 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to 290 cm and at 1000 m from 40 to 70 cm. Elsewhere in our mountains there is snow at 1500 m from 90 to 140 cm, at 1000 m up to around 40 cm.

The snow cover is mostly covered with crust that in places bears human weight. In shaded locations in the high mountains the snow is still dry in places and also soft. Below around 1500 m the snow cover is quite settled and frozen in the morning, but softens during the day. In the high mountains there are many wind slabs and slabs. On wind-exposed locations the surface is hard and partially iced.

The avalanche danger is level 2 above around 1800 m, lower down level 1. Spontaneous sloughing is mostly not expected, only smaller sloughs from steep southern slopes at midday and in the afternoon are possible. An avalanche can only be triggered by significant additional loading of the snow cover on steeper slopes at locations with wind-blown snow.

Today it will be cloudy with occasional precipitation mainly in the area of the Julian Alps, elsewhere there will be little. In the evening and night to Saturday precipitation will occur elsewhere too and tomorrow morning it will stop everywhere. The snow line will fluctuate between 1500 and 2000 m. In the high mountains 5 to 10 cm of snow will fall, in the Julian Alps, especially the western ones, up to over 30 cm. Since it will snow on a crusted base, the new snow higher up will not bond well with the base and avalanche danger will increase especially in the Julian Alps. At the same time rain lower down will soak the snow, therefore we expect spontaneous sloughing of wet snow slab avalanches on sufficiently steep grassy or leaf-covered slopes.



The new report will be issued on Monday, 15.4.2013 in the afternoon.



The general avalanche danger is level 2 on the European five-level scale.



Source: ARSO