Schneedecke

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!

Every two years, the International Snow Science Workshop (ISSW) brings together scientists and practitioners from a wide range of different, but always snow-related, subject areas. New findings and research results are presented in various thematic blocks - so-called sessions. We break the whole thing down into more or less digestible morsels and summarize the sessions of the ISSW2018 for you every two weeks.

In the Southern and Central Alps there is often already a very thick snow cover. Weak layers that have been built up (old snow problem) can only be found on glaciers directly on the glacier ice. In other words, where the snow from early fall has remained. Otherwise, the snowpack structure is very good - and will most likely remain so in the snow-rich regions.

The PowderGuide weather service is starting the season. As usual, you'll find a preview and short text forecast on the homepage and our PowderMap in the weather section, which you can use to navigate to ConditionsReports, text forecast, fresh snow and sunshine forecast.

The morning wind is fresh, the leaves are becoming more colorful, the peaks whiter: Winter is just around the corner and the season is slowly getting underway again at PowderGuide. The PG core team takes the opportunity to indulge in the anticipation and discuss their individual ski destinations and weather wishes for the coming season.

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:

Countless ideas and observations were put down on paper for the International Snow Science Workshop 2018. One of them was the result of a collaboration between Kristian Rath, an observer at the Bavarian LWD, and the Snow Sturgeon: A schematic overview map of the "core areas" of the ground-level weak layers in the Alpine region and their connection to the tree species distribution.

The renaissance of the "snow profile for everyone" has long since begun. Anyone who wants to record or pass on their profiles can now purchase an elegant recording tool.

In the current season, it was noticeably more dangerous in sunny areas than in shady ones. This is due to a special form of weak layer formation known as the "cold on warm hazard pattern".

SLF doctoral student Jürg Trachsel loves skiing and is happy when snow clouds bring fluffy powder. Professionally, he is also interested in the properties of snow, but then he swaps his skis for a microscope. He gets his samples from the real powder clouds and an artificial cloud in the lab that makes it snow at the touch of a button.

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.