Five people have died, and another suffered minor injuries, following an avalanche in the municipality of Spiss in the Austrian Tyrol State on Friday 4 February 2022. No further details of the event have been released at this time, but it is thought to have been triggered by rapid warming of the air after a heavy snowfall earlier in the day. A total of 31 avalanches were recorded across the Tyrol on the same day, with one other person being injured in a separate incident.
Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.
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