During the night to Thursday night skies are clear and the moist snowpack is able to stabilize. On south-facing slopes a melt-freeze
crust capable of bearing loads forms up to high alpine regions. As daytime warming and solar radiation intensify, the snowpack
subsequently forfeits its nocturnally regained firmness during the course of the day. Wet-snow avalanches can be expected,
some of which will be of very large size.
In the upper third of the snowpack in may regions there is a marked weak layer evident. This layer is generally in the vicinity
of the layers of dust blown north from the Sahara desert in February. In the Valais and in Grisons more than anywhere else,
isolated avalanches were triggered by persons in these layers not only on north-facing slopes, but also on east-facing, south-facing
and west-facing slopes during the last few days. These releases occurred also during the morning hours.
On high-altitude, steep north-facing slopes dry-snow avalanches can still be triggered in some places.