Last week’s weather: variable. Mostly gray skies and rainy, with brief intervals of improvement and dispersed clouds (23-25 May).
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| Weather station Hahnenkamm (Reutte): for a station at 1670m, still enormous amounts of snow |
The predominantly gloomy, cold, wet weather will persist for a bit.
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| Rainfall up to about 2500 m in most parts of Tirol. Tirol’s highlands (photo: 28.05.2019) |
The ZAMG weather service published a report of special precipitation events on Monday, 27 May: “A low over Scandinavia and a low over Italy will bring moist air masses to the Alps from the north and from the south. Until Wednesday, gray, wet, cold weather will prevail in Tirol with sometimes heavy rainfall in the northern barrier-cloud regions from Ausserfern to the Wilder Kaiser. In the mountains, significant amounts of fresh snow are anticipated above the timberline. On Thursday, Ascension Day, slight high-pressure zone influence and slightly improved weather conditions.”
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| 24-hour precipitation 2019-05-28 at 2:00 pm |
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| From the Stubai Alps to the Venediger Massif, ample amonts of snowfall are anticipated. |
Starting on Ascension Day (30 May) the weather will steadily improve. With regard to possible avalanches, the same scenario is expected as following the intensive period of precipitation last week: as solar radiation increases, including daytime warming, numerous loose-snow avalanches, some of which will be superficial slab avalanches, will trigger. Following a swift settling impulse, the frequency of avalanches will then decrease noticeably.
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| Numerous loose-snow avalanches (in foreground, also a superficial slab avalanche) triggered between 23 and 25 May. Wilder Leck in the Stubai Alps (photo: 26.05.2019) |
Characteristic of this winter and the generally stable old-snowpack layering is the complete lack of large-sized slab avalanches which fractured in deep-down layers. Still theoretically possible in very isolated cases in high alpine regions on very steep, shady slopes are fractures immediately beneath the glacier ice
see blog.
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| Still not to be ruled out: isolated gliding snow over smooth ground. Arlberg region (photo: 26.05.2019) |
Incidentally, the winter also brought about some forest damage....
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| Snapshot from the region on the border to the Salzburg province: pressure created by the weight of snow bent and mangled the trail signs and (in background) the trees. (photo: 23.05.2019) |
