Snow avalanche formation

Snow avalanches are a major natural hazard, endangering human life and infrastructure in mountainous areas throughout the world. In many countries with seasonally snow‐covered mountains, avalanche‐forecasting services reliably warn the public by issuing occurrence probabilities for a certain region. However, at present, a single avalanche event cannot be predicted in time and space. Much about the release process remains unknown, mainly because of the highly variable, layered character of the snowpack, a highly porous material that exists close to its melting point. The complex interaction between terrain, snowpack, and meteorological conditions leading to avalanche release is commonly described as avalanche…