Avalanche bulletins for Nordenskiöld Land in Svalbard

- Avalanche bulletins for all of Nordenskiöld Land will be published from now on. If naturally triggered avalanches threaten the buildings in Longyearbyen, the NVE (The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate) will implement an additional local warning service for these avalanche risks in particular. This system will be based on general weather and avalanche bulletins, local weather forecasts, local avalanche observations and known avalanche paths in Longyeardalen, says Odd Arne Mikkelsen in NVE.

The Local Community Council of Longyearbyen is responsible for the safety of Longyearbyen’s inhabitants, according to the preparedness regulations. The Local Community Council will be contacted in case of risk for naturally triggered avalanches, in order to prepare safety measures such as increased monitoring or evacuation.

The Governor of Svalbard will assist the Community council if required, and in addition determine and carry out traffic restrictions if necessary.

The warning service will be evaluated in June 2016. The bulletins will be published at varsom.no every day before 16:00 hours. The avalanche warnings are predictions of avalanche risk for the following two days. The bulletins are composed by NVE, based on an analysis of observations and weather forecasts.

The observations are made by observers from UNIS (The University Centre in Svalbard) and NVE (see regobs.no). The Norwegian Meteorological Institute delivers the weather forecasts.

Avalanche bulletins with maps are found here:

http://www.varsom.no/Snoskred/Nordenskioldland/

The inhabitants of Longyearbyen will be invited to an open information meeting about the new local avalanche warning service for the settlements in Longyearbyen.

NVE, Longyearbyen Local Community Council and the Governor of Svalbard.

Contact persons:

NVE:
Odd Arne Mikkelsen, cell phone: 977 59 345

Longyearbyen Local Community Council:
Marianne Aasen, cell phone: 982 28 902

The Governor of Svalbard:
Governor Kjerstin Askholt, cell phone: 905 71 326