Webcast

Operational applications of snow cover modelling

While the usage of models for weather forecasting has been long established, the application of snow cover models for operational avalanche warning purposes is still quite novel. In Austria, the national weather service, ZAMG, develops model-based tools for operational avalanche warning services and local avalanche commissions. In particular, a model-chain consisting of a snow cover model and an ensemble of weather models to operationally assess and predict avalanche hazard in a local context is currently developed. The model-chain provides regional avalanche forecasters and local avalanche commissions with continuous, detailed information about the snow cover from the near-past to the nearfuture. This is to enable early warning of exceptional snow cover situations. In this talk we will give an overview on model-based tools for avalanche services and present the local avalanche prediction model and preliminary results of a first test season in more detail.

 Lecture slides...