Avalanche Canada helps inform backcountry recreationists on avalanche danger ratings and issues across the province, but this season, they’re introducing flexible forecast regions to more accurately reflect avalanche conditions.
While the structure and daily forecasts will remain the same, changes are coming to avalanche.ca. The new system allows the organization to reflect backcountry conditions more accurately.
Changes include a new search feature on the homepage map so users can find their riding areas quickly and easily. In addition, avalanche Canada professional forecasters will now determine the regional boundaries of forecast regions based on avalanche conditions, not fixed region names.
“We’ve made these changes to tackle one of the biggest problems with our old system,” says an Avalanche Canada spokesperson in a new informational video released about the system. “Conditions would often vary significantly across some of our larger regions. These new flexible regions allow us to reflect conditions more accurately.”
Avalanche Canada will cover the same area they always have, but forecast regions will be dynamic rather than fixed, divided into sub-regions with boundaries that change in response to conditions. Subsequently, each flexible region is coloured to reflect its highest danger rating.
Avalanche Canada is giving users an early look at the new system before the winter season begins. A sneak peek of threcentew changes to the forecast map will be available until October 28. Visit https://sneakpeek.avalanche.ca to view the changes.
To learn more about Avalanche Canada’s new forecasting system, visit the FAQ page.