Civilian, i.e. non-military, avalanche warning has existed in Europe since 1945. At that time, the Swiss SLF decided to set up a nationwide avalanche warning service. After some particularly serious avalanche disasters occurred in the 1950s, further avalanche warning services were set up in the Alpine countries in the 1950s and 60s. Since then, and even today, the structure and equipment of the various avalanche warning services have differed greatly, which is also due to the largely independent development history of these institutions. This was particularly evident in the fact that the various warning services used different hazard classes and classifications of avalanche danger for their avalanche situation reports. This had the major disadvantage that the different avalanche warning levels in the various Alpine countries were difficult or sometimes impossible to compare with each other. For a long time, a 7-level scale was used in Switzerland, an 8-level scale in France, an 8-level scale in Italy, which also differed from France, and a 6-level scale in Austria and Bavaria, which differentiated between roads and traffic routes as well as touring terrain. Understandably, Alpine clubs and mountain guide associations vehemently criticized this situation. For alpine practice, this meant that different danger levels applied in often small areas. Accordingly, there were frequent calls for a standardization of the danger levels.
In October 1983, the first international meeting of European avalanche warning services took place in Munich, which was followed by further regular meetings. The breakthrough came ten years later in Wildbad Kreuth in 1993: Bernd Zenke, head of the Bavarian Avalanche Warning Service, was particularly committed to standardizing the avalanche warning levels. In intensive rounds of negotiations and consultations as well as many preliminary and individual discussions, an agreement was reached. In April 1993, the time had finally come: from then on, the European Avalanche Danger Scale applied.
The most important parameters of the new 5-level warning scale were the stability of the snowpack and the probability of triggering avalanches - and this has remained the case to this day. In the following years, many non-European countries also joined the avalanche warning services working group, with the result that the 5-level avalanche danger scale is now used almost worldwide. Enormous advantages of the European avalanche danger scale for users and avalanche warning services The great advantages that the European avalanche danger scale brings for users of the situation reports and also for avalanche warning services are obvious: the danger levels can be better compared with each other and experienced users can compare the quality of the respective avalanche warnings with each other.
There are just as many advantages for forecasters: the uniform hazard scale makes it easier to compare neighboring regions. The standardized danger scale as the "basic language" of all avalanche warnings also facilitates the exchange of experience. A particular merit of the avalanche warning scale is that it has become the most important basic component of the risk check methods currently in use: the enormous success of risk check methods such as the reduction method, snow card & Co. would hardly be conceivable without the standardized scale. Today, the five-point scale is widely accepted by users. Michael Larcher, head of training at the Austrian Alpine Association, sums up the importance of the Euroscale: "The European Avalanche Danger Scale is simply brilliant: if it didn't exist, it would have to be invented!"Source: 2012/2013 seasonal report of the Austrian Avalanche Warning Services. See p. 192 ff. Download the full annual report here...
