During the months which have elapsed since last winter, Avalanche Bulletins have taken strides, implemented new developments. The top highlight is the integration of the AWS Carinthia into the Avalanche Report System Euregio: starting this season, border-crossing, multi-language joint avalanche forecasts are being published together with our southeastern neighbors.
Collaboration! Closing of ranks with the Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service
Border-transcending, multi-language avalanche reports
In your study of the initial reports of this season it may have struck you that the warning regions are no longer limited beyond national borders towards South Tirol, but also now include the Glockner, Schober and Kreuzeck massifs in the direction of Carinthia. This may seem trivlal, externally speaking, but was in fact the cause of immense work over the summer months on the part of the Euregio Avalanche Warning Services, and in particular of Leo Zoltan and Florian Steiner, forecasters at the Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service. Their work is now bearing fruit:
As of the launch of this season, the Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service also publishes its reports in the system of Euregio Avalanche Warning Services. The selfsame vocabulary-glossary of the Swiss Lawinen Forschung institute is used for its textual building blocks, which makes possible automatic translations of the daily bulletins in six other languages.
Through this collaborative work, the regions can now be drawn together into an overall border-transcending mosaic, in accordance with the motto: The snowpack (and thus, the avalanches) do not recognize national borders. This adds an increased value which, ideally, will benefits us, and moreover, lead to increased unity and uniformness and thereby, greater consistency.
Combined weather station graphs
Apart from the jointly written and forecast Avalanche Bulletins, also the weather stations of the Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service will be depicted in the website of the Euregio Avalanche Warning Services, and likewise, that also applies in the other direction: the weather stations of South Tirol, Tirol and Trentino will apear in the website of the AWS Carinthia (LWD Kärnten).
New micro-regions
Micro-regions constitute the smallest geographical units over which avalanche danger can be assessed. Each day, these micro-regions are merged to form larger-scale Warning Regions for which the Avalanche Bulletin is then published.
In the course of the amplified collaboration with the Carinthian Avalanche Warning Service, several micro-regions particularly in East Tirol were split apart in order to enable an ideal merger of Warning Regions. Thus, the rather large region “Lienz Dolomites” in the south of East Tirol was split into “Carnic Alps East Tirol,” “Lienz Dolomites,” and the “Kreuzeck Massif East Tirol.” Above and beyond that, the Glockner Massif and the micro-region “Northern Zillertal Alps”were also separated.
Avalanche Bulletins near borders
At least in most of the German-speaking Avalanche Bulletins in the Alpine region, it is customary for relatively small Warning Regions to be assessed. Yet it often occurs that winter sports enthusiasts are en route in off-piste terrain near regional or national borderlines where differing Avalanche Bulletins for each side of the border are published. In order to obtain and take advantage of all information available which was fed into the planning for each report in the website, two different bulletins had to be consulted.
Starting this season there is also NEWS in that respect: at the website Lawinen.report and on all the websites of the Austrian and the Bavarian Avalanche Warning Services, the reports of the other Avalanche Warning Services can be read directly without having to consult another internet address.
New Whatsapp channel
A few years ago we had our own Whatsapp channel, over which Avalanche Bulletins and Blogs were published. In the interim, we had to accept that automatic sending of news was no longer possible. However, this situation has once again changed and as of this season, we can offer once again a Whatsapp channel.
The best way to access this: with your browser on your smartphone, click onto lawinen.report and then on the home page, click onto “abonnieren.”
Seasonal review 2024-2025 online!
In the blog of 12.11.2025 we gave you a foretaste of the seasonal reports of the Austrian Avalanche Warning Service. The seasonal review report is now finished and can be enjoyed online both here, and in abbreviated form which can be printed as hard copy via the Shop des Österreichischen Alpenvereins (shop of the Austrian Alpine Club). We wish everyone an enjoyable read, full of lessons, in studying the seasonal review.
Observations wanted!
This is not really news. But we simply do not tire of begging you to send us your reports and analysis from off-piste terrain via SNOBS.LIVE in order to register your observations of alarm signs, danger signs, or simply the quality and structure of the snowpack.
You can also help us to better understand and record the snow and avalanche situation through your written feedback, so that our Avalanche Bulletins can be improved through hot information. At the same time, you yourselves can read the reports/observations of others on SNOBS and thereby gain an improved picture of the prevailing avalanche situation.
