Snow conditions in the mountains 15.4.2013

From Friday to Saturday it was cloudy with occasional precipitation.

In the mountains, 10 to 20 cm of snow fell, the least in the western parts of the Julian Alps and Karawanks. The snow line was initially around 2000 m, then it dropped a bit. Lower down, rain further soaked the snow cover. Relatively warm weather continued, and from Saturday afternoon it was also quite sunny. The snow cover settled and transformed quickly. Wet snow slab avalanches released from steep slopes, higher up avalanches released on sun-exposed slopes midday and in the afternoon, when the sun softened the snow. Today the snowline is at around 2500 m above sea level.

At 2500 m in the Julian Alps there is up to about 440 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to 250 cm and at 1000 m from 20 to 50 cm. Elsewhere in our mountains at 1500 m there is 80 to 130 cm of snow, at 1000 m up to about 20 cm. There is more snow in shady aspects, while southern slopes are bare even above 1000 m above sea level.

The snowpack is softened lower down, higher up it is frozen in the morning, but during the day on plateaus and sun-exposed spots it becomes wet and softens and destabilizes. In shady aspects of the high mountains the snow remains dry and frozen.

Avalanche danger is mostly level 2, midday and in the afternoon it increases to level 3 on sun-exposed spots.

Spontaneous release of wet snow slab avalanches is expected from steeper grassy or leaf-covered slopes, even in forests, and midday and afternoon avalanches of softened snow from steep high-mountain slopes. In the morning there is locally in the high mountains danger of gliding slabs. Due to daytime warming, cornices can also collapse.

In the coming days mostly sunny weather will continue.

Until Friday it will warm up a bit more. The snow cover will continue to settle and also melt, with creeping on potential spots the avalanche danger will slowly decrease.



New report will be issued on Friday, 19.4.2013 in the morning.



General avalanche danger is level 3 on the European five-level scale.



Source: ARSO