<p>Accurately predicting the location, timing and size of natural snow avalanches is crucial for local and regional decision-makers, but remains one of the major challenges in avalanche forecasting. So far, forecasts are generally made by human experts, interpreting a variety of data, and drawing on their knowledge and experience. Using avalanche data from the Swiss Alps and one-dimensional physics-based snowpack simulations, we developed a model predicting the probability of dry-snow avalanches occurring in the vicinity of automated weather stations based on the output of a recently developed instability model. This new avalanche day predictor was compared to benchmark models related to the amount of new snow. Evaluation on an independent data set demonstrated the importance of snow stratigraphy for natural avalanche release, as the avalanche day predictor outperformed the benchmark model based on the three-day sum of new snow (F1 scores: 0.71 and 0.65, respectively). The averaged predictions of both models resulted in the best performance (F1 score: 0.75). In a second step, we derived functions describing the probability for certain avalanche size classes. Using the 24-hour new snow height as proxy of avalanche failure depth yielded the best estimator of typical (median) observed avalanche size, while the depth of the deepest weak layer, detected using the instability model, provided the better indicator regarding the largest observed avalanche size. Validation of the avalanche size estimator on an independent data set of avalanche observations confirmed these findings. Furthermore, comparing the predictions of the avalanche day predictors and avalanche size estimators with a 21-year data set of re-analysed regional avalanche danger levels showed increasing probabilities for natural avalanches and increasing avalanche size with increasing danger level. We conclude that these models may be valuable tools to support forecasting the occurrence of natural dry-snow avalanches.</p>