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The Avalanche Climate of Glacier National Park, B.C., Canada During 1965-2011

Climate change is evident and long-term changes of the climate system have been observed. It has been shown that changing atmospheric conditions influence the formation and evolution of the seasonal mountain snow cover and therefore determine the avalanche hazard. For this study we analyzed long-term weather data as well as snow and avalanche data from Glacier National Park, British Columbia, Canada. Weather and snow cover data was measured at two experimental sites Rogers Pass and Mt. Fidelity at 1340 m and 1905 m a.s.l., respectively. The avalanche data were observed along the section of the Trans Canada Highway located within Glacier National Park. The mean annual air temperature at both stations showed similar increases for the last decades as already found for the Northern Hemisphere. The largest increase of the monthly mean air temperature was found for the early winter months from November to January. A significant decrease of the solid precipitation, i.e. proportionally more rain, was found for Mt. Fidelity station in November. This trend might have favoured the formation of early season rain crusts, which were found in manual snow cover profiles more often during the last two decades. These crusts favour more weaknesses deep in the snowpack and potentially more deep slab avalanches. The frequency of natural avalanches within Glacier National Park did not increase during recent decades, but a trend towards more avalanches in January and March was found. However, these trends might be influenced by avalanche control work conducted at Glacier National Park and might therefore be unrelated to climate change.