News
Big Changes for 2024/25!
As we wrap up a season of major expansion for CNFAC operations, we are excited to be planning for more growth in 2024/25. Our operation for Chugach State Park exceeded our expectations, and we are looking forward to continuing along a similar format next season. The big changes will be for our new forecast zones on the Chugach National Forest- the Summit Lake and Seward/Lost Lake areas.
Beginning next winter, we will be issuing daily avalanche forecasts for all three of our forecast zones on the Chugach National Forest (Girdwood/Turnagain Pass, Summit Lake, and Seward/Lost Lake). This marks a major paradigm shift for the CNFAC, which has been focusing forecasting efforts on the Turnagain Pass area for over 20 years. There will be a lot of operational changes behind the scenes to make this work, but most of those will go unnoticed to the public. Here’s what you will see on the front end.
New Forecast Zones
As part of our growing operations, we will be providing a full daily forecast for the Summit and Seward zones (as well as the Girdwood/Turnagain zone as always). As we reconsider how we focus our efforts across a broader area, we will be adjusting the boundaries of our forecast zones. These changes will be minor for the most part, and we’re hoping that the new boundaries will better capture some of the snow climatology patterns we’ve noticed over the past 20 seasons. We will also be shifting efforts to provide more information for the Summit and Seward zones, which may come at the cost of having the high-resolution forecasts for the Turnagain zone that we have been providing. This new model fits better with national standards, and it will enable us to focus our efforts where they are most needed, depending on conditions. For some weeks this might mean we only have one or two field days in Turnagain Pass, while others we may still have four or five. The new model gives us the flexibility to get into the zones that need the most attention, thereby providing information where it is most needed.
Along with our new forecasting operations, we will be implementing the National Avalanche Center (NAC) web platform for our forecast and observations pages. The forecast products will have all of the features we have been using, so hopefully these changes will be minor. We will be working closely with the NAC this summer to ensure a smooth transition to the new design next season. The major components of the forecast will all be there (Danger Rating, Bottom Line, Problem Type, Problem Rose, Size, Likelihood, etc.). There may be some parts of the forecast that are rearranged, and there will be some subtle changes in graphic design.
The bigger difference will be in the Observations platform. Ideally this new platform will be streamlined to make it easier for you to share observations. It will still have fields to share place names, photos, and notes on what you saw, but the layout will look different.
The new forecast layout will have some different design elements but each piece of the forecast you are used to will still be there.
This is a very exciting time for the avalanche center. Please understand that this is a work in progress and it is new to all of us. We’re working to shape our operation to provide you all with the information you need! We really appreciate all the support and input we’ve gotten since we started our major growth phase last fall, and we’re looking forward to continuing to develop our operation over the coming season.