Avalanche Bulletin

Avalanches > Avalanche Bulletin

Météo France publishes an avalanche bulletin (BRA) for the Alps, Pyrenees and Corsica on a daily basis throughout the ski season from mid-December to the end of April. There is a twice weekly bulletin outside of the ski season. There are no bulletins for the Massif Central, Vosges and Jura. Try the piste services in the ski stations for advice.

The following bulletins are translated automatically by Google from a cleaned up version of the original French bulletin

Northern Alps

• Haute Savoie Avalanche Bulletin
• Savoie Avalanche Bulletin
• Isere Avalanche Bulletin

Southern Alps

• Hautes-Alpes Avalanche Bulletin
• Haute-Provence Avalanche Bulletin
• Alpes Maritimes Avalanche Bulletin

Corsica

• Haute Corse Avalanche Bulletin
• Corse du Sud Avalanche Bulletin

Pyrénées

• Pyrénées Atlantiques Avalanche Bulletin
• Hautes Pyrénées Avalanche Bulletin
• Haute Garonne Avalanche Bulletin
• Ariège Avalanche Bulletin
• Andorra Avalanche Bulletin
• Pyrénées Orientales Avalanche Bulletin

More Information

The following link gives French/English translations of many avalanche terms. The list was prepared by French Canadians so not all the terms are recognized in the French avalanche bulletins..

Météo France also maintains a network of automatic monitoring stations, which provide a weather history for the whole season.

Avalanche Risk Definitions

The following table gives a guide to the headline risk figure but remember that this is just an overall indication. Remember that most avalanche accidents happen when the risk is 3. A detailed understanding of the bulletin is required to safely plan routes.

1: LOW	Natural avalanches very unlikely. Human triggered avalanches unlikely. Generally stable snow; isolated areas of instability.	Travel is generally safe. Normal caution advised.
2: MODERATE	Natural avalanches unlikely. Human triggered avalanches possible. Unstable slabs possible on steep terrain.	Use caution in steeper terrain on certain aspects.
3: CONSIDERABLE	Natural avalanches possible. Human triggered avalanches probable. Unstable slabs probable on steep terrain.	Be more cautious in steeper terrain. Be aware of potentially dangerous areas of unstable snow.
4: HIGH	Natural and human triggered avalanches likely. Unstable slabs likely on a variety of aspects and slope angles.	Travel in avalanche terrain not recommended. Safest travel on windward ridges or lower angle slopes without steeper terrain above.
5: EXTREME	Widespread natural or human triggered avalanches certain. Extremely unstable slabs on most aspects and slope angles. Large destructive avalanches possible.	Travel in avalanche terrain should be avoided and travel confined to low angle terrain well away from avalanche path runouts.

Long considered bad publicity by resorts, some have seen the light and are starting to publicize avalanche reports and sometimes an English version is also shown.

Listen to audio describing each risk rating http://www.henrysavalanchetalk.com/avalanche_risk_scale.html -

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