Avalanche hazard in the Central Apennines (Italy) is usually assessed through quantitative tools specifically conceived for the Alpine climate. For instance, the avalanche release depth calculation relies on the prior estimation of the increase in snow depth over three consecutive days of snowfall. Physically, this means that in Alpine regions, triggering intense snowfalls are assumed to last 3 days. Despite such duration being identified as representative for Alpine regions, it is often selected by professionals to assess avalanche hazard in other sites. However, the existing literature does not back up the adequacy of such a practice for the Central Apennines. Hence, with the aim to test it for this area, a data-based regional analysis is proposed. The evaluation of a critical duration of snowfalls that fits the Central Apennines climate is performed analysing ERA5-Land snowfall data over a period of 73 years, from 1950 to 2023, calibrated with available observations from 1978 to 2023. By intersecting ERA5-Land grids with recorded and reconstructed avalanche paths in the Abruzzo Region (extracted from the Avalanche Record and the Map of Probabilistic Location of Avalanches made available by the Abruzzo Region), 101 nodes have been selected with 0.1° spatial resolution. This ensures that the explored nodes are solely relative to areas where avalanches are most likely to occur. It should be stressed that ERA5-Land data has been preferred to local observations as manual and automatic weather stations set up in the Central Apennines are located at lower altitudes compared to where avalanche release is likely to occur. Moreover, manually recorded data appears to be incomplete, especially during intense snowfall events. Lastly, to prioritise the effect of snow overload on triggering avalanche release, only snowfalls with an intensity above a given threshold have been considered, thus excluding spatially isolated events. The results are then used to define a critical duration at the regional scale. This work is of interest not only for professionals when defining initial and boundary conditions for simulating avalanche dynamics, drawing up hazard and risk maps, and designing active and/or passive defence structures, but also for the official bodies responsible for avalanche risk management in the Central Apennines.