Snow Conditions in the Mountains 25.1.2013

On Thursday it snowed lightly again and about 5 to 15 cm of dry snow fell. It snowed on mostly loose base, so the new snow bonded well with it. An east to northeast wind blew, creating drifts only in wind-exposed places. The snow cover settled a bit more, on sunny slopes it also softened during the day in sunny weather and thus transformed somewhat.

The snow cover extends to the lowlands. The snow is mostly loose on the surface and breaks through, under the layer of relatively loose snow there is a crust that mostly does not hold human weight. In wind-exposed places in high mountains there are numerous drifts and cornices along ridges. At 2500 m in the Julian Alps there is up to about 260 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to about 140 cm. Elsewhere in our mountains there is 30 to 50 cm of snow at 1500 m. At 1000 m the snow cover is about 30 cm thick.

The avalanche danger is level 3 in the high mountains of the Julian Alps and western Karavanks, elsewhere mostly level 2.

Dangerous are especially places with blown snow and steeper slopes. Already with small additional load on the snow cover you can trigger an avalanche. Spontaneous avalanches are mostly not expected.

Today and at the weekend it will be mostly sunny and cold weather in the mountains. A weak to moderate wind mostly from northeast direction will blow, on Sunday it will weaken. There will be no major new drifts at the weekend. The temperature will be below zero all the time. The snow cover will slowly settle and transform. On sunny slopes it will soften during the day, at night it will freeze and a crust will form. In shady areas and above about 2000 m the snow will remain dry. The avalanche danger will slowly decrease.

New report will be issued on Monday, 28.1.2013



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



Source: ARSO