The United States ended an historically deadly month for avalanches with an apparent near-miss in Alaska’s capital city.
Officials in Juneau braced for “historic avalanches” this weekend as the city’s urban avalanche forecast reached “extreme” danger, leading to evacuations of some residents in a particularly danger-prone area on Saturday night.
Bu Sunday, however, City Emergency Programs Manager Tom Mattice offered a measure of reassuring news in the day’s advisory report.
“Although natural avalanches are still likely I think we may have dodged a bullet for the time being on the big one,” he said.
On Saturday, however, Mattice was worried, predicting that any avalanches would be “of great size” and issuing an extreme avalanche warning for the first time, KTOO-FM reported.
It was also the first time since 2008 that the city recommended that residents in the Behrends Avenue neighborhood evacuate their homes due to the avalanche danger, according to KTOO.
While the city’s other urban avalanche paths also present danger, the depth of snow particularly in the upper Behrends path, which runs through a downtown Juneau neighborhood, is particularly concerning, said city officials. They recommended that those in the path evacuate their homes.
About 20 people from the area were expected to shelter Saturday night in a downtown convention center, Mattice told to the Juneau Empire.
February is already the deadliest avalanche month in more than a decade:Here’s what’s fueling it.
February has been deadliest month for avalanches since the Colorado Avalanche Information Center began tracking fatalities in 2009. At least 26 people have died in avalanches nationally, far surpassing the previous record of 19 in January 2008.
The week of Feb. 1-8 was the deadliest seven-day period in the history of the avalanche center data.
And it’s not only the snow depth that creates avalanche danger, but how the snowpack was set up, Ethan Greene, director of the Colorado Avalanche Center, told The Coloradoan of the USA TODAY Network this month.
He said conditions vary across the country but generally in the Intermountain West and Rocky Mountains, there has been a “super weak” layer of snow near the ground that fell in the fall. That was followed by a period of drier weather. More snow started piling up on the weak surface layer in mid-December, creating sensitive conditions for human-triggered avalanches.Â
“People need to take avalanche safety seriously,” Greene said. “People need to stick to the basics of checking the forecast for where they are going, then matching their plans according to conditions to identify safe travel routes even if they have been to the area before.”
Historically, January is the deadliest month for avalanches in the U.S., followed by February and March, respectively.
“Avalanche danger will rise and fall with the weather, but the dangerous characteristics of avalanches are not going away this season,” Greene said.
Contributing:Â Miles Blumhardt, The Coloradoan (Fort Collins, Colo.)
