A Christmas present – new things in the avalanche report

Last winter the cross-border Internet website of the Euregio Avalanche Bulletin was launched. The enormous extent it was accessed, together with 3500 reader feedback reactions in the online survey at the end of March 2019, confirm the high degree of acceptance of the site. In addition we received lots of stimulating suggestions and proposals for improvements which our team has now implemented.

Here is a brief overview of the most important improvements:

Better depiction of daytime changes

Whenever avalanche dangers change within one day, two maps are shown, one for morning, one for afternoon. That already existed last winter. What’s new is displaying both danger maps on the home page. Previously you had to switch from morning to afternoon. Now it immediately jumps to view that the situation will change during that day. In addition, a leaner table of contents makes the map more prominent, provides a quicker overview.

Reports of all endangered regions are immediately online 

As soon as the user accesses the site, reports of endangered regions are immediately available. If clicking on the map is not possible, e.g. if Internet connection is poor, the reports can still be read. Simply scroll or pan.

Weather stations and their data

In Tirol, our technician Paul Kößler is in charge of the dense network of automated measurement stations. This year he established several new stations: Nauders-Ganderbild; Predigberg-snow station; Kappl-Spiduralpe; Axamer Lizum. In addition, he supervises approximately 200 other locations in Tirol. The latest data from all these stations are available to users directly in the avalanche report. What’s new is the access to the stations: now easily clickable in the “snow & weather” section of the contents via links integrated into weather maps and the newly designed list of station measurements.

Access the values in the weather maps by clicking the graph of this weather station.

The new weather-station measurement table. By clicking the station name, you access the graphs of that station.

A weather-station graph example. Display of current measurements includes possibility to select various times-of-day

Also improved was data quality with the help of an automatically integrated correction of apparent snafoos. Even though we have reached a very high status of reporting accuracy, occasional errors are part of the human scenario.

Handbook 

For all those who would like to know more about the Avalanche Bulletin and other related products, we recommend the new handbook. It is listed in the menu under “Education & Prevention”.

The menu item “Handbook” accesses a complete description of the Avalanche Bulletin.

Information even if Internet connection is poor

If you click https://lawinen.report/simple/de.html, a simplified version of the Avalanche Bulletin can be accessed swiftly in case Internet connection is poor. That gives users the guarantee of having full info of the snow and avalanche situation even in isolated regions where Internet coverage is weak.

A simplified depiction of the Avalanche Bulletin, in case Internet coverage is weak.

In addition, the new system reacts automatically to poor Internet coverage, enabling you to instantly switch to the simplified version.

New possibilities to replace WhatsApp

Subscribers to the Avalanche Bulletin have already been notified that the report is no longer available via WhatsApp. This is due to company policy regarding this service. To replace it, we have arranged alternative channels to access the bulletin. This video show just how it works:(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSbS-vUad-w):

We wish all our readers and users of the Euregio Avalanche Bulletin: Happy Holidays and accident-free backcountry tours.