Colorado Avalanche Information Center: increase in danger due to low snow totals, new snow on the way
There has been an uncharacteristically low amount of snow in the mountains of Colorado this winter season so far, but that is about to change thanks to a round of snowstorms marching their way through the Centennial State. While that's fantastic news for mountain communities who have been waiting for snow totals just like this, it does provide an incentive to keep tabs on the avalanche reports from the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, who have yet to record a fatal accident this year (something that hasn't happened since 2019) but believe that could soon change.
"January, February, and March are the most deadly months for avalanches in Colorado and that is because we start to see that winter snowpack building, it gets deeper, we see larger avalanches in those months," Ethan Greene, Director of the CAIC told your reporter in the mountains Spencer Wilson. "Great that we have made it that far but everyone needs to still be thinking about avalanche safety though the rest of the year to keep the accidents to a minimum potentially with dangerous months coming up. "
A large worry for the CAIC is the fact that there is a weak foundation for the snowpack to build on this year, between little snowfall and long stretches of no snow at all, creating a "weak layer" that all this new snow will be piling upon. That's a recipe for any new snow to slide, should the conditions be right. It's not that we haven't had any avalanches so far, we have, but nothing that's killed someone.
"Those avalanches are going to be much larger, and much more dangerous," Greene warned.
If you're interested in doing a little background history on our fatal accidents in Colorado in regards to avalanches, feel free to check out the new info page on their website put together by Colorado Mountain College students.
