PartnerNews | SLF: First bulletin 75 years ago yesterday

"The Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research Weissfluhjoch/Davos announces": Many people still know this phrase from the radio. The avalanche bulletin, the SLF's best-known service, was also distributed via newspapers, TV and telephone and today mainly via the Internet and the White Risk app. The avalanche bulletin is the oldest natural hazard warning in Switzerland and a legal mandate that the SLF has now been fulfilling for 75 years. The first issue of the avalanche bulletin was published on December 21, 1945 and was printed by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, among others.

Avalanche warnings in Switzerland had their beginnings before the Second World War. In the 1930s, the Swiss Ski Association (SSV) began publishing a description of the avalanche danger for skiers every weekend. During the war, the army also set up a warning service for the troops. This was done in collaboration with the Snow and Avalanche Commission founded in 1931, which became the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research in 1942 (now the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF). This took over responsibility for avalanche warning after the end of the war and set up its civilian warning service.

Better forecasts thanks to precise weather models

In addition to an improved understanding of the processes that lead to an avalanche, the increasingly precise weather models from MeteoSwiss are also an important basis, which have greatly improved the accuracy of avalanche forecasts. For example, the amount of fresh snow can be predicted much more accurately, which has a major influence on the risk of avalanches. "Although considerably more ski tourers, off-piste skiers and snowshoers are out and about in the open terrain today than 30 years ago, the annual number of avalanche victims has not increased over this time, but has tended to decrease", says Stucki. This is due to better training, equipment and, ultimately, avalanche warnings and their products.

In the next few years, forecasts are expected to be enhanced by machine learning processes that can analyze and evaluate the large amounts of data. However, Stucki is convinced that these will not be able to completely replace humans. This is mainly because the data cannot fully represent the complex system, which is why human expertise and experience will still be required for interpretation. The expert knowledge of avalanche wardens will therefore remain irreplaceable in the future.