#avalanches

#avalanches

"Don't entirely trust any of these slopes until temperatures dramatically cool down. Each day, the sun climbs higher in the sky, and the oppressive heatwave sends meltwater deeper into colder snowpacks."

Four skiers were killed in avalanches in the Tyrol region. Three of them died in a massive avalanche near the St Anton ski resort, officials said. Two of the victims were recovered from the snow but could not be saved, and the third died in the hospital, a police spokesman said. A German skier died in an avalanche in Nauders. He had been skiing off-piste with his 16-year-old son, who survived with serious injuries, police said.

Showers moving into the region from the Central Coast should bring steady rain to Ventura and Los Angeles counties Thursday morning, with frosty temperatures pushing snow levels lower than normal, potentially impacting commuters along the Grapevine, according to the National Weather Service. "Steady precipitation will taper off to showers by late this afternoon and become confined to the mountains by late tonight," the weather service posted in a Thursday morning forecast.

Snowfall in France this week has been huge, with some resorts seeing more than 2 meters (6.6 feet) in the last five days. A massive winter storm hammered the French Alps from February 10-13, unleashing monster snowfall that has buried resorts and reshaped the mountain landscape just days before Valentine's Day weekend. Across the Northern Alps - including iconic resorts in Haute-Savoie, Savoie, and Isère - weather stations reported extraordinary snow totals.

According to the Salzburg Mountain Rescue, four ski tourers were killed on Saturday afternoon when an avalanche swept through the Finsterkopf area in the Großarl Valley, in the federal state of Salzburg. The avalanche occurred at an altitude of around 2,150 meters (7,054 feet) and buried a group of seven ski tourers. Rescue teams were able to recover three people alive, though several sustained serious injuries, while four members of the group were found dead beneath the snow.

A strong storm system that has brought relentless winds, rain and snowfall to California was expected to ease on Friday, but there was still a risk of high surf along the coast, flash flooding near Los Angeles and avalanches in the Sierra Nevada. Waves near the San Francisco Bay Area could reach up to 25ft (7.6 meters) on Friday, parts of southern California were at risk of flooding, and avalanches could hit the Lake Tahoe area, officials warned.