Avalanche fatalities in the western United States: a comparison of three databases |
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| Authors: | Jeremy M Spencer Walker S Ashley |
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| Institution: | (1) Department of Geography, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA;(2) Meteorology Program, Department of Geography, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, USA |
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| Abstract: | Reported avalanche fatalities in the United States increased markedly through the latter half of the twentieth century, a
result of the increasing popularity of winter sports. Despite this increase, the literature concerning US avalanche fatalities
is sparse. This paper presents a comparison of three US databases containing avalanche fatality information: Storm Data, the West Wide Avalanche Network (WWAN) dataset, and the National Avalanche Database (NAD). The frequency of avalanche fatalities,
their temporal trends, spatial distributions, and the demographic characteristics of the victims were analyzed in each database
for the years 1998–2009 for the US mountainous west. The data were then pooled to arrive at an estimate of avalanche fatality
frequency in the United States for the study period. While the results indicate a considerable amount of overlap between the
datasets, Storm Data reports fewer avalanche fatalities than both the WWAN and NAD datasets. All three datasets report a maximum of fatalities
in January and display three spatial maxima: the Rocky Mountains of west-central Colorado, the intermountain region from central
Utah through Idaho to west-central Montana, and the northern Cascade Ranges of Washington; however, a large void appears in
the Storm Data records in the vicinity of the Montana maximum. These maxima result from a juxtaposition of avalanche hazard in these mountainous
environments with a high concentration of winter sports activities. |
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