As a consequence of fresh fallen snow and strong-velocity northerly winds, fresh snowdrift accumulations have been generated.
They lie deposited atop unfavourable old snowpack surfaces and are prone to triggering in some places.
Beneath the new snow and freshly generated snowdrift accumulations of the last few days, the snowpack layering in the Jura
region, on the northern flank of the Alps and in the western part of the Lower Valais is predominantly favourable. In the
areas surrounding the rain crust which formed at the end of December, however, there are weak layers evident; where these
layers are blanketed over by fresher snow they can be prone to triggering.
From the central part of the Valais over the northern Ticino as far as Grisons, the snowpack in frequent cases is expansively
metamorphosed (faceted) to a massive extent and riddled with thin melt-freeze crusts. In places where the snow is shallow,
one often breaks through down to the ground. As a result of the expansive metamorphosis of the uppermost layers, the tendency
of the snowpack towards fracture propagation has decreased, thus, there were hardly any avalanches reported fracturing in
the old snow during the last few weeks. In the furthermost southern regions there is very little snow on the ground.