Extreme Weather in Alaska

Parts of Alaska have seen record high temperatures, record low temperatures, very strong wind, record rainfall and record snowfall – all in the same day!

Let’s start with snow. Anchorage (by far) the biggest city in Alaska, had a record snowfall of 9.9″ on Saturday. Then they had a daily record snowfall of 5.9″ on Sunday. That’s 15.8″ of snow in just 2 days. They are up to 37″ of snow on the ground – that’s over 3 feet. They have already ha 103.5″ of snow this winter. The Alyeska Ski Area nearby has already had 428″ of snow this winter! The base at the top of the mountain is 106 feet.

Anchorage already had 20″ of snow on the ground on Nov. 10. That’s the earliest that they have ever had that much snow on the ground.

Valdez AK had 15.7″ of snow on Saturday and 16.9″ on Sunday! That’s 32.6″ in two days. They are up to 81″ of snow on the ground. That’s nearly 7 feet. I spent a couple days in Valdez last August. It’s the “Switzerland of Alaska”. We ate dinner outside at a place called The Fat Mermaid. It was down by the water with snow-capped mountains around us and a very brave little bunny that was almost within arms reach. The rabbit was eating just the dandelions. I wanted to take him home!

Anchorage is a relatively cool place. The warmest temperature they had in 2023 was 73°on August 5th.

There was also record wind gusts in places. Eaglecrest tops the list with a peak gust of 105 mph! Ship Island had a gust to 87 mph and Hydaburg recorded a gust to 86 mph. The graph above is wave height at the Cape Edgecombe buoy – up to 35 feet and still climbing.

The southeast panhandle of Alaska saw record high temperatures yesterday, with 55° at Ketchikan (that’s 15° warmer than the warmest day in Gr. Rapids during the month of January)! Petersburg hit 54 degrees. Sitka reached 53°. The old record high there was 49°.

The relatively warm air was accompanied by an “atmospheric river” of moisture that produced record 24-hour rainfalls: Haines 3.17″, Cordova 3.16″, Sitka 2.98″, Yakutat 2.58″.

Interior Alaska has seen incredible cold, with a few spots reaching 55 below zero.

Here’s a picture of the heavy snow in Anchorage. It’s the earliest that Anchorage has reached 100″ for the winter. It’s also the second year in a row with over 100″ of snowfall. The snowiest winter ever in Anchorage was 134.5″ in 2011-12. There’s certainly plenty of time to challenge that record.

The Richardson Highway up through Thompson Pass was closed in anticipation of 4 feet of new snow. From Sunday through Monday morning, Anchorage police reported 62 cars that had slid off the roads or were stranded by the side of the road. Thee were 36 collisions with 11 injuries.

Many schools declared not a snow day, but a “remote learning day”. The Road Commission said it could take up to 5 days to get to every road in the area. An avalanche left snow 15 feet deep on the Haines Highway. City officials declared a cold weather emergency.

ALSO: This is solar noon on the Winter Solstice in Fairbanks, AK with the sun at just 2 degrees above the southern horizon. Check out the video at this link.

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