Snow conditions in the mountains 4.1.2013

On Wednesday it snowed lightly in the mountains, with accumulations from just a few up to almost 10 cm of snow. It was mostly dry and bonded poorly with the crusty base. The wind blew it into drifts. Already on Thursday warmer air flowed into the higher elevations again, but it was relatively dry. The snowpack softened somewhat during the day, only above around 2000 m the snow remained dry or frozen. Today the freezing level is at about 2400 m elevation. The snowpack is slowly transforming and stabilizing.

The snowpack extends to about 1100 m elevation. The snow is mostly covered with crust, on which there is some powder snow, which is also slowly becoming crusty. The snow depth is very uneven.

In many places the snow is completely wind-scoured or there is very little of it. The largest areas with wind-deposited snow are on the southern and southwestern sides of ridges and passes. At 2500 m in the Julian Alps there is up to about 140 cm of snow, at 1500 m up to about 40 cm. Elsewhere in our mountains at 1500 m there is from 15 to less than 30 cm of snow.

The avalanche danger is 2nd degree in the high mountains above around 2000 m, lower down it is 1st degree. Steeper slopes and places with wind-deposited snow are dangerous, where with greater additional stress you can trigger an avalanche. Where the snow is wind-scoured, there is also the risk of slips on icy surfaces.

Avalanche conditions will not change much by the end of the week. Relatively dry and warm air will persist over us, but the zero-degree isotherm height will fluctuate. The snow will slowly transform and the surface crust will harden.

A new report will be issued on Monday, 7.1.2013.



General avalanche danger is 2nd degree on the European five-level scale.



Source: ARSO