Backcountry skiing is a popular form of recreation in Switzerland and worldwide, despite numerous avalanche accidents and fatalities that are recorded each year. There is a need for spatially explicit information on backcountry usage for effective risk estimations and avalanche forecast verification. We successfully used GPS tracks and online engagement data to model daily backcountry skiing base rates in the Swiss Alps based on a set of snow, weather, temporal and environmental variables.

We evaluate fully data- and model-driven predictions of avalanche danger in Switzerland and compare them with human-made avalanche forecasts as a benchmark. We show that model predictions perform similarly to human forecasts calling for a systematic integration of forecast chains into the forecasting process.

This study explores the timing and content of media coverage (i.e., newspaper articles) of droughts in England. We found that media coverage generally coincides with meteorological drought, but the inverse case did not always generate media coverage. Dominant topics include the water deficiency and weather forecasts, but also the mismanagement of water companies and hosepipe bans, highlighting current challenges in water management practices in England.