Since 10 January 2026, the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) has received reports of hundreds of "whumpfs" (i.e., sounds indicating a collapse in the snowpack) and of remote ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. The behavior of an avalanche depends on the structure of the snowpack, but that's only one ingredient. An avalanche requires all ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Forecasters assessed avalanche danger near Castle Peak on Monday before Tuesday's avalanche that trapped 15 people, with nine ...

Snow scientist Craig Clements says a snow drought likely contributed to this week’s deadly avalanche in the Sierra Nevada, where eight people died and one is still missing, New snow falling on top of ...

A weekslong "snow drought" in Northern California's Sierra Nevada helped set the stage for Tuesday's deadly avalanche, after several feet of new snow fell on an earlier layer that had hardened, making ...

The storm that blew into the Sierra Nevada earlier this week was ferocious, bringing frigid air, gusts of wind and whiteouts and dropping 6 feet of new snow on Donner Summit in a matter of days.

A deadly avalanche buried a group of backcountry skiers and their guides near Lake Tahoe in California’s Sierra Nevada as an intense storm brought heavy snow to the region on Feb. 17, 2026. Six of the ...