Evaluating the Local Avalanche Danger in Tromsø, Northern Norway Using Field Monitoring, Field Investigations and the SURFEX/ISBA-CROCUS Snowpack Model

During the winter 2013/2014 we conducted frequent fieldwork, collecting snowpack prop- erty and stability data from five monitoring sites along a vertical transect. This transect stretched from 250 m to 750 m a.s.l. on a mountain in the southern part of the forecasting region "Tromso", located in the county of Troms, Northern Norway. At these five snowpit sites, we collected snow- and air temperature data using iButton temperature sensors, placed on plastic stakes. These data were used to assess the local avalanche danger level as well as the avalanche problem on each of the 12 field days. In this paper, we compare the local avalanche danger rating and the avalanche problem assessed by us with the re- gional avalanche danger rating and avalanche problem given by the Norwegian Avalanche Centre. Our results show, that local and regional avalanche danger levels correlated well, while the local and regional avalanche problem did not. Overall, however, our vertical transect of snowpit sites seems to be a repre- sentative location to assess the regional avalanche danger in the forecasting region "Tromso. This is good news for avalanche forecasting in Tromso using the SURFEX/ISBA-CROCUS snowpack model to represent snowpack conditions at different locations. Even forced with weather forecasting data from the AROME-Norway model, the model output correlates highly with the field data.