The snowpack became thoroughly wet over the course of this last week: on south-facing slopes below approximately 3200 m, on
east-facing slopes below approximately 2500 m, on west-facing slopes below approximately 2800 m, and on north-facing slopes
below approximately 1700 m.
In the uppermost third of the snow cover in many regions there is a marked weak layer evident. This layer is found most often
in the vicinity of the layers of dust blown north from the Sahara desert to the Alps in February. During the course of this
week, isolated wet-snow avalanches were triggered in this layer by persons. This also occurred during the hours before noon.
In the Valais and in the southern regions more than anywhere else, a melt-freeze crust capable of bearing loads will form
on east-facing, south-facing and west-facing slopes during the nocturnal hours on Friday night. In the northern and eastern
regions the nighttime hours will have reduced outgoing longwave radiation. As a result of the daytime warming and solar radiation,
wet-snow avalanches are possible, in some places also large-sized ones.
On high-altitude north-facing slopes, isolated dry-snow avalanches can still be triggered.