Aufbauende Umwandlung

Depending on the area and altitude, there are already some melting crusts within the snow cover that have been created by rain events or warm air intrusions. Weak layers often develop around these. Why is this?

I've almost forgotten how to interpret weather maps, it's been so awful the last few weeks. But October is finally over and January seems to want to live up to its image as a winter month, at least for a few days.

The fog hangs in the valley, the days are getting shorter, the nights cooler, the drinks warmer. Industry magazines report either enthusiastically or critically on the events that take place on every glacier every weekend. It's the most beautiful time of the year. It's fall. But especially for skiers who are more (i.e. exclusively) off-piste, the time before the real start of winter and the first heavy snowfalls harbors a considerable number of dangers that should be taken into account.

Once upon a time, a high pressure bridge over Central Europe provided stable mountain weather for days on end. Unfortunately, the wind didn't really want to play along, so the avalanche situation remained tense in many places, and annoyingly on a sunny weekend with fresh snow ...

"On Sunday (refers to the week before last [5.1.14]) it snowed wet in the south, in some places up to over 2000 m, and after a starry night, dry powder was also to be found much lower down on Monday. (...) I've been thinking about a build-up transformation of the wet fresh snow. Is that conceivable?"

It's time for the Christmas alert and some people seem to have been good and written Powder on Santa's wish list. Since Ullr and Santa Claus always hang out together, he of course immediately passed this on to Ullr over a beer and we are properly rewarded with südstau. But apparently some people on the north side of the Alps were naughty, so it stays foehn there for the time being and only starts to snow later and less.

The snowfall of the past few days has created a tense avalanche situation. At the end of the week, a warm front will bring very mild temperatures and rain up to high altitudes. At the weekend, the signs in the Eastern Alps are pointing to a northern thaw.

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.