Avalanche forecast in North America?
In Switzerland, there is a avalanche forecast twice a day, at least during the winter months. This forecast reports about potential risky part regions, especially avalanche-prone expositions, and risky altitude ranges. This report is available for every region in Switzerland.
Is there something similar for North America? I'm especially interested in the region in and around Yosemite National Park.
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Basically the answer to your question is no, unless you're in very specific areas doing very specific activities. US wilderness areas are much bigger, much less accessible, and much less populated and developed than the Alps. You can get information, but it typically won't be very informative about specific places at specific times.
Here in California, the available information tends to be for areas near ski resorts. This may be useful for certain very specific activities, such as taking a ski lift up a mountain, then leaving the resort and skiing or snowboarding down in a nearby area. Some people call this "sidecountry" skiing.
For hiking and mountaineering in wilderness areas, a good rule of thumb is the following simple checklist: (1) Has there been more than 6 inches (15 cm) of snow in the last 48 hours? (2) Is the slope angle, determined from a topo map, more than about 30-35 degrees (or is the area bare of old-growth trees)? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, don't go.
In general, practice avalanche avoidance, not avalanche safety; plan at home. Don't succumb to social factors, such as going somewhere because you've already committed yourself do doing it with your friends, or going somewhere because other people seem to be doing it. Don't assume it's safe to go somewhere because you've been there before and it was OK then.
You can also take an avalanche safety course. However, the evidence seems to be that these courses are not effective in reducing people's chances of getting killed.
Some good scientific info is available in "Evidence of heuristic traps in recreational avalanche accidents," Ian McCammon, http://www.snowpit.com/articles/traps%20reprint.pdf
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There are regional Avalanche centers, which report to the National Weather Service so you can find information there. However, I would stick with the local information centers because most of the time they would get information first.
For example there are centers in Colorado, Northwest US, Utah, and Avalanche.org, which simply provides aggregation all the local reporting agencies.
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