Abbauende Umwandlung

Snow crystals begin to change on their way from the cloud to the ground. Perhaps a layer of air is warmer and the crystal thaws slightly, or several crystals stick together to form large flakes. If it is windy, the fine branches of the crystals break off. Once they reach the ground, things don't calm down - that's when the changes really begin. For skiers, the decomposing and building transformation is crucial:

Despite the warmer temperatures in the fine weather phase, the snow surface on shady slopes remained mostly loose. On the other hand, slopes exposed to strong sunlight - especially at lower altitudes - became damp on the surface and a cover could form due to cooling.

This week, our newly acquired snow rummager repeats the confusion of symbols, abbreviations and numbers that can be found in a typical snow profile. If you know how, you can read all sorts of things from such a graphic and you don't always have to dig yourself to get an overview of the snow cover at a particular location. There's also a new profile from the Sellrain, so you can put your new knowledge into practice right away!

High Dorit and Erika have been bringing warm and practically precipitation-free weather for many days. On the sunny side, you can now find spring-like conditions with firn, depending on the altitude. On the shaded side, you can still catch a few turns of good powder - at least where the wind hasn't worked - despite a zero degree limit of over 3,000m at times. Why?

At first glance, snow profiles seem complicated. However, if you know a few basic terms, this impression is quickly put into perspective. But even if you can read profiles, it takes some practice to draw the relevant conclusions from them. The most important thing, however, is to be able to visualize the snow cover and its layering in the terrain. An example:

Snow cover without relevant weak layers is very rare, especially in the inner Alpine regions in early and high winter. In the current season, we are seeing this constellation in large parts of the Alpine arc. The snow cover is often compact and the old snow is stable.

In order to counteract the "I-only-understand-the-station" mentality when viewing snow profiles - whether in a snowflurry or on various avalanche warning service portals - we turn back to explanatory examples. As an introductory explanation, we recommend How to read and interpret a snow profile.

The Alpine region is still under the influence of an Omega high. The snow cover continues to build up at higher altitudes and on the shaded side, while there is something similar to firn on steep, lower southern slopes. Surface frost can also be found, but only rarely due to the low humidity in relation to the amount of radiant nights.

As my colleague Powder Orakel delivers new updates practically every day in the wonderfully productive pre-Christmas period, I would like to take this opportunity to look at the somewhat more timeless nature of snow.