Hey Guys,
I am using Houdini to generate this simulation and I am currently recruting more people. Ok so this shot was before I added the metaballs how ever I have not created a Render Particle SOP to Render the POP simulation so as it stands it looks like a bunch of little snow flake balls but in the view port of the OpenGL I get nice billowly clouds so I will add that SOP soon. I am also currently working on the Ice chunks in the avalanche and the tengrels that tend to expand from the billowly snow cloud like avalanche.
[img]http://janis.mtsu.edu/%7Enesler/Images/FXWarsAvalanche/SnowAvalancheTest_01_255.jpg[/img]
Also I am working on generating building from particles. These buildings will interact with the Snow Avalanche to be torn apart bit by bit. I am also working on the Trees and to have all their leaves stripped from them. I need to work on the orientation of the particles to develop and build the buildings but I think I have a workable solution in my head. This building has over 20,000+ particles I plan to reduce it down to about like 1,000 or 500. That building is too render intensive at 20,000+ particles and I might create a LOD setup with the particle system to save on render time in addition to lowering the particle count.
[img]http://janis.mtsu.edu/%7Enesler/Images/FXWarsAvalanche/ParticleBuilding_01.jpg[/img]
If Pugsy decides to come out and play then I will happily create a crowd AI system to have him snow board down the slope while avoiding the trees and buildings. 
While being on the edge of destruction with no keys and all totally non-linear animation.
Other people might write the shaders Aracid, and GON hopefully :) ;). I hope Pugsy Joins the fun too.
[img]http://odforce.net/forum/uploads/post-11-1095734858.jpg[/img]
Oh and yeah I know the lighting needs work. I am mainly focusing on the simulation though. I might turn lighting over to someone else if they want to do it.
Cheers,
Nate Nesler