Dear Friends,
I am writing you to tell you about some changes at the Colorado Avalanche
Information Center. Starting on Wednesday December 20, 2006 we will start
using a new website and forecasting system. This will change both how we
create forecasts and how we get them to you. Launching this new system is
the culmination of work that we began last winter and we are very excited
about some of the new features.
There are two features of the new system that affect the daily emails you
get from the CAIC. First, we are going to start issuing weather and
avalanche products for ten mountain zones. The names of the zones are:
Steamboat and Parks Range, Front Range, Vail and Summit County, Aspen,
Gunnison, Sawatch, Grand Mesa, Northern San Juan Mountains, Southern San
Juan Mountains, and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There is a map on our
home page that will show you the areas covered in each zone. This means that
we will be issuing ten bulletins each morning and afternoon!
Second, is that as a Friend of the CAIC we have created an account in our
new system for you. This account will let you manage which products you
receive, the format of your emails (html or plain text) and make future
donations to the CAIC online with your credit card. The default is to
receive all ten zones in plain text. This means that if you get the morning
product you will start getting TEN emails and if you get both the morning
and afternoon products you will get TWENTY emails each day. To access you
account and select the products you want:
1. Go to the Colorado Geological Survey's online bookstore at
http://dnr.state.co.us/geostore.
2. At the bottom center of the page there is a link to Your Account.
3. You can sign in using your email address as your username and the
password avfriend.
4. Once you are in your account, select CAIC Zones on the left menu and
choose which zones you would like to receive. If you get both the morning
and afternoon products make sure you select zones for each product (there is
a drop down menu at the top of the page that lets you select the product).
If you have any problems with this process, please write us at
caic@qwest.net.
If you made a donation to the CAIC this year, we have set your account so
you will receive an email through December 1, 2007. If you have not donated
this year we have set your account to receive an email through January 5,
2007. You can renew your support for the CAIC and extend your email
subscription through the online store. Just click on Snow and Avalanche on
the upper menu bar and select the CAIC Donation at the level you wish to
donate. You can make larger donations by choosing multiple values of each
product. We promise not to send you any more emails than we already are!
There are many other features to our new forecast system and webpage, but I
will let you explore and discover them for yourself. We tried very hard to
get this ready for you by the beginning of the season. Unfortunately it took
a little longer than we expected, but we are very excited to launch it now.
We hope it will help us get better information to you. Please let us know
what you think.
Thank you for your support,
Ethan
