Avalanche bulletin and weather forecast Haute Savoie

This avalanche translation of the Meteo France avalanche bulletin is produced mainly through an automated translation tool.  Please use it in conjunction with the French bulletin found at the above link.

N74130211
BULLETIN FOR ESTIMATING THE RISK OF AVALANCHES
FOR HAUTE SAVOIE
Valid off marked and open trails
FOR THURSDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2008
(Drafted Wednesday, February 13)

ESTIMATE OF RISK UNTIL THURSDAY EVENING:
All massive Haute-Savoie: Low risk (level 1) that evolves limited risk (level 2).

WEATHER OVERVIEW UNTIL THURSDAY EVENING:
Good weather.

Isothermal 0 DG: 2100 m with cold air in the morning in the valley bottoms.
Isothermal -10 DG: 3700 m.
Wind at 2000 m: Slow.
Wind at 4000 m: Slow.

SNOW CONDITIONS:
The snow is a little low for a mid-February but still largely correct: You can put on skis as soon as 1000 m in the north, 1300 to 1600 m in the south. A 1500 m north side, there are on average 60 to 80 cm of snow. In the high mountains, snow is intermittent after strong winds of last week.

Quality of snow Thursday:
South Versants: Snow regelée well in the morning, then softening locally crusty surface until about 2500 m in the exposed slopes.
Versants North: Snow crust below 1800 m, changing at higher altitudes (powdery dense in areas usually little windy, hard cardboard or elsewhere).

STABILITY OF SNOW COVER:
Very rare cold slabs sector, rare spontaneous avalanches in hot sectors.

After a week of sunny and windy few days, the snowpack is well stabilized as a whole.

In northern slopes:
The risk of a slab avalanche by a skier or a group of skiers will be very localised, but probably still present in very few well steep slopes remained cold, so higher than 2000 meters.

In southern slope:
After an early day stable with a good regel, warming due to the sun may cause an average mountain, rare spontaneous avalanches of wet snow, until about 2700 m altitude approximately. These rare avalanches are usually small in size but an avalanche slightly more voluminous remain possible, including below cliffs if the soil is made up of slabs of rock.

TREND LATER RISK:
From Thursday to Sunday, the risk is stationary or slightly decreasing.

Meteo-France updates this newsletter everyday at 16h or sooner if conditions warrant.