Savoie is placed on orange avalanche vigilance from 8 p.m. this Thursday evening until Saturday morning at 3 a.m., indicates Météo France in its bulletin this Thursday. “The level of avalanche risk will gradually increase this afternoon, to reach the high level by next night (level 4 on the European scale) on Beaufortain, Haute-Tarentaise and Vanoise. This risk strong will hold Friday all day”explain the forecasters, “it will probably be necessary to wait until Saturday morning to finally see the risk of spontaneous avalanche drop”.
Spontaneous triggering in high mountains
Meteo France predicts that “powder snow avalanches will trigger spontaneously in the high mountains. These avalanches will become more and more numerous over the next night and gradually larger. Some may reach mountain infrastructures located above 1800-2000 m of altitude”.
“Lower down, down to around 1500-1800 m, the rain will strongly moisten the snowpack, wet snow slides could reach some mountain road sectors that are still very snow-covered next night, and very rarely an avalanche of powder snow will be able to finish its course. , in mixed snow in the most exposed corridors”, still says the bulletin.
Up to 1 m of snow on the Beaufortain
By Friday morning, “above 2200 m, up to 50 to 70 cm (of snow are expected) on the Haute-Tarentaise and the Vanoise, even up to 1 m on the Beaufortain. Only 30 to 50 cm in the other massifs of Savoie, not affected by orange vigilance” and by Saturday morning, “the total accumulation of the episode could reach 70 to 100 cm, locally more in the sectors where the snow will have accumulated by the stormy westerly wind”.