This season, citizen scientists have an even simpler and more intuitive way to report avalanches. This helps the avalanche warning service to verify its forecasts and provides an even better picture of the current situation in Switzerland. Also new are avalanche bulletins from France and additional features for planning tours safely in snowy terrain.
Winter sports enthusiasts will now have an even simpler, clearer and faster way to report avalanches while out in the field.
White Risk, the avalanche prevention app developed by the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), has a new input interface for this year's winter season. "We want to make it even easier for people out and about in the mountains to send us this vital data," says SLF avalanche warning officer Lukas Dürr.
By doing this, ski tourers, snowshoers, winter hikers and others make an important contribution to the avalanche bulletin as citizen scientists. The data they provide goes directly into the systems of the avalanche warning service, giving its experts an even better picture of the current situation in Switzerland. "This helps us to verify our current forecasts and so improve forecasts for the future," explains Dürr.
The new graphical menu is intuitive and easy to understand (see video). Anyone who witnesses an avalanche can mark the starting point on a map and enter further details such as its size and type. This can be done from their location at the time. Uploaded photos and videos provide additional information. These should ideally include images of the entire avalanche as well as detailed shots of the area where it started. "Every reported observation is added to the
map of current avalanches on the SLF's website," says Dürr.
Other new features
- The avalanche bulletin for France is also set to be published on White Risk during the winter season. This describes the situation in the French Alps, the Pyrenees and Corsica.
- In addition, winter sports enthusiasts can now access CAT (classified avalanche terrain) and ATH (avalanche terrain hazard) maps for France and Austria. The maps for Switzerland have been recalculated. The CAT map shows both starting and runout zones, while the ATH is a hazard map that uses a colour gradient to indicate the potential danger from avalanches.
- Finally, starting this season, users drawing their own routes can follow those of the Swiss Alpine Club's ski route network. This makes the process quicker and easier.