Snow avalanches can be studied from the office window - it just depends on where the office is located. NGI has its own avalanche research station in the middle of one of the most avalanche-prone areas in Norway.
- Snow avalanches are by far the most dangerous type of avalanche in Norway. More than 2000 people have died in avalanches of various kinds in Norway over the past 150 years. 1500 of them have lost their lives in snow avalanches, says Frode Sandersen, head of the Avalanche Sector and second-in-command of NGI's Natural Hazard Department. -We can expect as many as ten major disasters in Norway over the next hundred years, with substantial loss of life, if the necessary steps are not taken. Norway has no country-wide avalanche warning system such as they have in the Alps, he continues.
Avalanches tend to occur during or just after major snowfalls. The amount of snow necessary to trigger an avalanche depends on wind, temperature and precipitation. For a slide to occur, the terrain must have a slope of more than 30 degrees. The worst avalanche year recorded was in 1868, when 161 people lost their lives. The snow conditions were very unusual, with a cold winter followed by three weeks of continuous snowfall. Suddenly it turned into a storm, and the results were disastrous.
- We have had major accidents since then as well. In 1979 the whole of Western Norway was affected, and in the course of a single month 270 houses were swept away by snow. The accident in 2000 in Lyngen, Northern Norway, is also still fresh in our memories. Two avalanches resulted in the deaths of five people, says Sandersen.
In Norway the mountainous regions along the coast of Western and Northern Norway are the most vulnerable. These areas are exposed to wind and weather, and the topography "lends itself" to avalanches. The counties of Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Troms and the coastal and mountainous regions of West-Finnmark normally have avalanches in the course of a winter.
In accordance with a Storting resolution in 1972, NGI was given responsibility for avalanche research in Norway. One year later, the Fonnbu research station was completed in Grasdalen valley, just by National Highway 15 on the route over the Strynefjell mountains. Countless avalanche courses and arrangements have been held at the station, which is used extensively as a research station and to accommodate avalanche experts from both Norway and abroad.
- In 2005, the field station was destroyed. Ironically enough, not by an avalanche or cold, but by fire. It was a great loss for NGI and the avalanche researchers, but fortunately all the research data was saved, so that the data on snow and avalanches that had been gathered over more than 30 years was not lost, relates Sandersen. NGI's new field station for snow and avalanche research was rebuilt a year and a half later, now as a modernised and expanded centre for Norwegian and foreign avalanche researchers.
- Avalanche warning used to be a very manual job, involving a great deal of walking, digging and paper folders. But the development and application of information technology has long since revolutionised this area too, states Christian Jaedicke, avalanche expert at NGI.
Norway is well to the fore in the development and digitalisation of various types of avalanche warning systems. The software that has been developed for avalanche warnings in Norway can, for example, be adapted for use in earthquake warnings in other parts of the world.
Many types of information are needed for preparing an avalanche warning for a specific area. Examples are terrain formation, salient features of the climate, weather and precipitation observations for the past few days, and information about previous avalanches in the area.
- There may be an avalanche on one slope, but not on another 100 metres away. Avalanche researchers inevitably have to go out into the field and study the conditions. Up to the present, nobody has managed to write programs that can create automatic avalanche warnings, and it may be that we never will get that far, because the assessments are so complex, says Jaedicke.
Detailed country-wide avalanche warnings have not yet been established in Norway, but the Meteorological Institute sends out warnings of, for example, "high risk" or "very high risk" of avalanches for whole regions. NGI also receives many inquiries and assignments from groups requiring more detailed warnings than this.
During the winter season, detailed avalanche warnings for the road over Strynefjellsveien, the Finse area on the Oslo-Bergen railway route and Imingfjell mountain in Uvdal are prepared and delivered daily. These services are ordered by the authorities responsible for the areas in question.
Since 2006, avalanche warnings, which have traditionally been sent by telefax, have been distributed by e-mail and SMS to all recipients of avalanche warning services.
NGI has a separate Natural Hazard Department with avalanche expertise. Among the services offered are assessment of avalanche risk, avalanche mapping and assistance to local authorities and those with problems in emergencies. Planning and follow-up of safety measures and contingency planning are also important fields of work.
NGI also owns and operates a special website, snoskred.no (only in Norwegian), with current information on avalanches and snow and weather conditions. The website also has a section where users can add information about their experiences, avalanches observed and reports from areas in Norway.