Avalanche Canada Forecast Program Expands For 2021-22

Date

Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Avalanche Canada's first forecasts for 2021-22 will be published Thursday, Nov. 25. This year is particularly exciting as we’ve added Vancouver Island to our regions, and the North Rockies and Yukon regions will be receiving daily forecasts for the first time.

Here's what you should know about our forecasting program this winter:

• We are providing regular forecasts for Vancouver Island for the first time! Thanks to long-term BC funding, we now have a three-person field team on Vancouver Island, supplying our forecasters with the data required for the daily bulletin. We’d like to thank the Vancouver Island Avalanche Centre Society for doing such great work over the past 15 years. We're grateful to be building on their success.
• We also have a new field team in northwest BC, based out of Smithers. The team will be collecting local snow, avalanche, and weather information to augment our regional forecasts for that area.
• We will be publishing daily forecasts for the Yukon and North Rockies regions. When we started forecasting for these regions in 2019-20, we only published bulletins three times a week. Last winter, we increased that to four times weekly, and now we’re able to deliver daily forecasts thanks to an investment in more forecasting staff.
• We have a field team in Newfoundland as well, helping us monitor conditions in the western mountains of that province. With their help we'll be launching a six-week pilot project later this winter, providing a regional forecast twice a week starting in February. We're excited about that!
• Continuing from last year, our forecasts will be partly bilingual, and we will be issuing abbreviated forecasts by text. We will also publish morning updates if the weather overnight is significantly different than expected. All morning updates will be reflected in the forecast headline, so always double check in the morning in case you need to revert to your Plan B (or come up with a Plan C).

If we have a field team in your region, lucky you! Keep an eye out for them and make sure to say hi if you see them in a parking lot or mountain top. Be sure to follow your local team on Instagram and/or Facebook, where they will be posting regularly about conditions in your region.

Check out our Forecaster Blog to find out more about early-season forecasting.