Snow, Weather, and Avalanches:
Observational Guidelines for Avalanche Programs in the United States
Click here to purchase a hard copy
Click here to purchase a hard copy



This document was produced through the cooperative efforts of the American Avalanche Association (A3) and the Forest Service National Avalanche Center. Its creation involved a working group from a broad cross section of avalanche workers in the U.S. getting input from the general membership of A3 and cooperation from the Canadian Avalanche Association. The result is this working document that we expect to be updated every five to ten years.
The electronic copy below is not printable, and is meant to be a resource for folks to check out the guidelines, view the contents, and do electronic searches. Bound hard copy of the document can be purchased through out online store beginning in the fall of 2004. Printable versions of the forms and conversion tables in the document are available below.




Snow, Weather, and Avalanches: Observational Guidelines for
Avalanche Programs in the United States

Introduction - includes the Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - Manual Snow and Weather Observations
Chapter 2 - Snowpack Observations
Chapter 3 - Avalanche Observations
Glossary
Appendix A-References
Appendix B-Units
Appendix C-Metadata
Appendix D-Observational sites for meteorological measurements
Appendix E (Part 1 and Part 2)-Automated weather stations
Appendix F (Part 1 and Part 2-ICSI classification for seasonal snow cover on the ground
Photograph by Kelly Elder Appendix G-Avalanche danger, hazard, and snow stability scales
Appendix H-Reporting avalanche involvements
Appendix I-Symbols and abbreviations

Printable Forms and Charts:
Avalanche accident reporting form - Long form (print version)
Avalanche accident reporting from - Short form (print verion) (electronic verion)
Avalanche data codes
Conversion charts
Sample datalogger programs
Snow profile forms
Ram Field Sheet
Ram Calculation Sheet


Please send contents, corrections and suggestions to:
      Mark Mueller
      Executive Director - American Avalanche Association
Photograph by Bruce Tremper       P.O. Box 2831
      Pagosa Springs, CO 81147
      aaa@avalanche.org




Supplementary Material
Snow Symbol Fonts from the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research
The Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research has created TrueType fonts of the snow symbols in the Classification for Seasonal Snow on the Ground (Colbeck and others, 1990). A few of the symbols commonly used in North America differ slightly from those listed in this document.


International Classification for Seasonal Snow Cover on the Ground
An electronic version of this document is available at the United States Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL).

Forest Service National Avalanche Center
More information on snow and avalanche phenomena can be found on the Technology Transfer
section of the NAC's website.

Westwide Avalanche Network
A great resource for avalanche information in the United States.

Canadian Avalanche Association
A great resource for avalanche information in Canada. Photograph by Bruce Tremper

Snow Crystal Physics at the California Institute of Technology
A great resource on snow crystal formation.



Snow Measuring Equipment and Snowpit Kits
Snowmetrics
Snowpit Technologies
Lifelink
Wasatch Touring



Field Notebooks Photograph by Kelly Elder
Snowpit Technologies
Hacksaw Publishing
Rite in the Rain



Snow Profile Software
Snowpilot
Snowpro+



Automated Weather Stations and Sensors
Campbell Scientific
Judd Communications


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