Winter of Terror

[1][2] The series of 649 avalanches killed over 265 people and caused large amounts of damage to residential and other human-made structures.

Austria suffered the most damage and loss of human life with 135 killed and many villages destroyed.

[4] Thousands of acres of economically valuable forest in both Austria and Switzerland, were also damaged during the period.

[5] The Swiss town of Andermatt in the Adula Alps was hit by six avalanches within a 60-minute period, resulting in 13 deaths.

[6] The period is thought to have been the result of atypical weather conditions in the Alps: high precipitation due to the meeting of an Atlantic warm front with a polar cold front resulted in 3–4.5 metres of snow being deposited in a two- to three-day period.