Service Change Notice 22-98
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD
130 PM EDT Tue Oct 11 2022

To: Subscribers:
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Managers Weather Information
-NOAAPort
Other NWS Partners, Users, and Employees

From: Daniel Roman, Acting Chief
Severe, Fire, Public, and Winter Weather Services Branch

Subject: Transition of the South Central Alaska Mountain Recreational Forecast (REC) to the Avalanche Weather Guidance issued by Weather Forecast Office (WFO) Anchorage: Effective November 9, 2022

WFO Anchorage will transition the South Central Alaska Mountain Forecast to the Avalanche Weather Guidance (AVG) product effective November 9, 2022. The Recreational Forecast (REC) will no longer be used to house the South Central Alaska Mountain Forecast. The AVG provides more detailed Avalanche weather information and forecasts in 6-hour intervals across localized areas relative to the REC, which results in an improvement over the REC forecast and eliminates the need for it. Feedback in the 30-day public comment period also demonstrated a desire to transition to the AVG product.

The AVG product will include a weather discussion, tabular output for localized areas, and graphical forecast output that can be navigated to using a map of the region.

The WFO Anchorage AVG product can be found at the following URL:
https://www.weather.gov/afc/avalancheweather

A link to a sample Avalanche Weather Guidance (AVG) from WFO Anchorage can be found at:
https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/afc_avg.pdf

The NWS is seeking comments on the Experimental Local WFO Avalanche Weather Web Page through April 30, 2023 via the online survey at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wfoavalanchewebpages2022-2023

Additional questions and comments can be directed to:

Noelle Runyan
Meteorologist-in-Charge
WFO Anchorage, AK
noelle.runyan@noaa.gov

or

Aviva Braun
Warning Coordination Meteorologist
WFO Anchorage, AK
aviva.braun@noaa.gov

For full text on upcoming changes and on how to submit input on the avalanche weather webpage, please see:

https://www.weather.gov/media/notification/pdf2/pns21-68_avalanche_web_page_aaa.pdf