This week, the Swiss Avalanche Bulletin said several times "These [avalanches] can get big". That sounds impressive - but what exactly does it mean? How big an avalanche is perceived to be is often subjective and depends on the circumstances. Nevertheless, the European avalanche warning services officially defined avalanche sizes some time ago.
Many winter sports enthusiasts are not very familiar with the terms or their definitions, partly because they often do not correspond to their own perceptions. This becomes particularly clear in the case of typical skier avalanches, which often have serious consequences for those affected, but have so far been described as "small avalanches" according to the official scale.
For avalanche sizes 1 to 5, the following terms are now used instead of the old terms
slide, small avalanche, medium avalanche, large avalanche, very large avalanche
(the rest of the classification remains unchanged):
small avalanche, medium avalanche, large avalanche, very large avalanche, extreme avalanche