“…Avalanches also play an important ecological role by modifying landscape and habitat characteristics (Bebi et al., 2009; Rixen et al., 2007). Climate (e.g., coastal, continental) serves as a background influence on snowpack characteristics that drive long‐term patterns in avalanche activity (Armstrong & Armstrong, 1987; Mock & Birkeland, 2000; Mock et al., 2016) or prevalent avalanche problem type (Haegeli et al., 2021), while weather directly influences snowpack structure and avalanches on daily to seasonal timescales. In addition, variability in synoptic‐scale atmospheric circulation and persistent climate modes (i.e., ocean‐atmosphere teleconnections such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation, ENSO and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, PDO) can have substantial effects on snowpack processes (Abatzoglou, 2010; McCabe, 1994; McCabe & Dettinger, 2002; Mock, 1996; Pederson et al., 2011a, 2011b, 2013) as well as avalanche frequency and behavior (Birkeland & Mock, 1996; Birkeland et al., 2001; Fitzharris & Bakkehoi, 1986; Fitzharris & Schaerer, 1980; Peitzsch, Pederson, et al., 2021).…”