Zervreila

After this week's snowfall, the snow depths in the north and west are well above average for the time of year. Deeper in the snowpack, especially on shady slopes above approximately 2400 m and in the high Alpine regions in general, there are faceted weak layers in which avalanches, some large, have been triggered in recent days. In the regions exposed to heavier precipitation in the west and north, these weak layers are now thickly overlaid and are therefore no longer so easily triggered by winter sports participants. However, any avalanches may still become large. In areas with less fresh snow, avalanches are easier to trigger in these weak layers, but will not be quite as large.

With the north to northeasterly wind, snowdrift accumulations formed at high altitudes on Thursday.

A four-day period of precipitation, which brought a lot of fresh snow to the north and most especially the west, ended during the night to Thursday, with Thursday being mostly sunny in the mountains.

Fresh snow

Since Wednesday afternoon, 5 to 10 cm of snow has fallen in the north down to low altitudes. From Sunday evening until during the night to Thursday, the following amounts of fresh snow had thus fallen above approximately 1800 m:

• northern flank of the Alps, northern and extreme west of Lower Valais: 70 to 110 cm, with up to 150 cm in the far west
• rest of Lower Valais, northern Upper Valais, northern and central Grisons, Jura: 30 to 60 cm
• elsewhere: 10 to 30 cm

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, around -5 °C in the north and -2 °C in the south

Wind

Moderate, locally strong north-northeasterly

Conditions will be mostly sunny in the mountains.

Fresh snow

-

Temperature

At midday at 2000 m, around 0 °C

Wind

The northeasterly wind will die down during the night and will be mostly light during the day.

Saturday

In the north, a few centimetres of snow will fall above around 1500 m during the night to Saturday. Saturday will be dry with relatively long bright intervals. Conditions will be very sunny in the south.

Avalanche risk will continue to decrease in the west and north. There will be no significant change in the south.

Sunday

Conditions will be very cloudy and some snow will fall in the west and north above around 1200 m, with 10 to 20 cm mostly in the far west. Winds will be moderate from the southwest, then from the west.

The risk of dry avalanches will increase slightly in the far west, otherwise it will not change significantly.