Snow conditions in the mountains 30.1.2013

In the mountains, the weather was mostly dry on Monday and Tuesday.

The temperature was around zero, but on Tuesday during the day, warmer air began to flow in, and today the freezing level is at an altitude of 2600 m, but it will rise a bit more during the day. The air is dry, so the snow cover froze at night, and during the day it softened mainly in sunny areas and on plateaus. The snow was slowly transforming, and the crust was strengthening on sunny slopes.

The snow cover extends to the lowlands. The snow is mostly covered with a crust on the surface, which formed due to daily warming and nightly freezing and does not support human weight. In shady areas, the snow is still dry and soft. In wind-exposed places in the high mountains, there are numerous drifts. At 2500 m in the Julian Alps, there is up to about 240 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to about 130 cm. Elsewhere in our mountains, there is 30 to about 50 cm of snow at 1500 m. At 1000 m, the snow cover is thick up to about 30 cm.

The avalanche danger is mostly level 2. It increases slightly during the day on sunny slopes, where the snow cover becomes somewhat unstable due to warming and the influence of the sun. Below an altitude of about 1000 m, the danger is mostly level 1. Dangerous are mainly places with wind-blown snow and steeper slopes, where you can trigger an avalanche by loading the snow cover. We do not expect spontaneous avalanches, except for some smaller sluffs.

Dry and relatively warm weather will continue. The snow will transform and slowly settle. During the day, except in shady areas, it will soften, and at night it will freeze. The surface crust will strengthen. The snow cover will be somewhat more unstable in the middle of the day and early afternoon than the rest of the day.

The new report will be issued on Friday, 1.2.2013



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



Source: ARSO