Two avalanches occurred in March 1910 in the Cascade and Selkirk Mountain ranges; on 1 March the Wellington avalanche killed 96 in Washington state, United States. Three days later 62 railroad workers were killed in the Rogers Pass avalanche in British Columbia, Canada.
During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the mountain campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front, many of which were caused by artillery fire. Some 10,000 men, from both sides, died in avalanches in December 1916.
Attempts to model avalanche behaviour date from the early 20th century, notably the work of Professor Lagotala in preparation for the 1924 Winter Olympics in Chamonix. His method was developed by A. Voellmy and popularised following the publication in 1955 of his Ueber die Zerstoerungskraft von Lawinen (On the Destructive Force of Avalanches).
A mountain climbing camp on Lenin Peak, in what is now Kyrgyzstan, was wiped out in 1990 when an earthquake triggered a large avalanche that overran the camp. Forty-three climbers were killed.
In 1993, the Bayburt Üzengili avalanche killed 60 individuals in Üzengili in the province of Bayburt, Turkey.
In Europe, the avalanche risk is widely rated on the following scale, which was adopted in April 1993 to replace the earlier non-standard national schemes. Descriptions were last updated in May 2003 to enhance uniformity.
A large avalanche in Montroc, France, in 1999, 300,000 cubic metres of snow slid on a 30° slope, achieving a speed in the region of 100 km/h (62 mph). It killed 12 people in their chalets under 100,000 tons of snow, 5 meters (16 feet) deep. The mayor of Chamonix was convicted of second-degree murder for not evacuating the area, but received a suspended sentence.
The small Austrian village of Galtür was hit by the Galtür avalanche in 1999. The village was thought to be in a safe zone but the avalanche was exceptionally large and flowed into the village. Thirty-one people died.
On 1 December 2000, the Glory Bowl Avalanche formed on Mt. Glory which is located within the Teton Mountain Range in Wyoming, United States. Joel Roof was snowboarding recreationally in this backcountry, bowl-shaped run and triggered the avalanche. He was carried nearly 2,000 feet to the base of the mountain and was not successfully rescued.
In 2001 it was reported that globally an average of 150 people die each year from avalanches. Three of the deadliest recorded avalanches have killed over a thousand people each.
On 28 January 2003, the Tatra Mountains avalanche sweeped away nine out of a thirteen-member group heading to the summit of Rysy in the Tatra Mountains. The participants of the trip were students from the I Leon Kruczkowski High School in Tychy and individuals associated with the school's sports club.
From "1950–1951 to 2020–2021" there were 1,169 people who died in avalanches in the United States. For the 11-year period ending April 2006, 445 people died in avalanches throughout North America. On average, 28 people die in avalanches every winter in the United States.
On 3 July 2022 a serac collapsed on the Marmolada Glacier, Italy, causing an avalanche that killed 11 alpinists and injured eight.