Snow conditions in the mountains 25.1.2012

In the night to Tuesday and on Tuesday morning up to 5 cm of snow fell in the mountains. It cooled down, the freezing level dropped to around 600 m above sea level. The new snow bonded poorly to the mostly crusty or hard base. The snow cover has been slowly transforming in the past days, especially on sun-exposed slopes where the crust has been strengthening.

The snow cover is mostly covered with crust, on top of which there are a few centimetres of powder snow, except on wind-exposed locations.

The crust bears human weight in places. Only in some sheltered spots in gullies is the snow still soft. There are many wind slabs and loose slabs; at the same time, snow on wind-exposed sites is heavily wind-packed, with a hard and sometimes icy base there. There is little snow in the mountains. Significant snow cover starts at around 1300 m above sea level, in gullies around 1000 m. In the Julian Alps at 2500 m there is up to about 100 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to about 50 cm.

Elsewhere in our mountains at 1500 m up to about 30 cm. Avalanche danger is mostly 1st degree. More dangerous are only sites with wind-blown snow and steep slopes. There, an avalanche can be triggered only with greater loading of the snow cover. On wind-packed sites there is a risk of slips.

Dry and cold weather will continue. Temperature in the mountains and also in the foothills will remain below zero. But due to increasing sun strength, snow on sun-exposed slopes will thaw slightly on the surface during the day and freeze at night. The crust will strengthen.

New report will be issued on Friday, 27.1.2012.



General avalanche danger is 1st degree on the European five-degree scale.



Source: ARSO