Want Snow? Go To Anchorage, Alaska. Record Dumps There

A neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska. Via X (formerly
Twitter by @Tomhewittnews.

 In the Lower 48 of the United States, winter has been reluctant to arrive. Oh, sure it's snowed here and there, including in Vermont where we live. 

But there's been nothing dramatic. Just spits and flurries and bursts of light snow. 

This is a contrast to many years in the past, in which epic blizzards by now in the upper Midwest, and big nor'easters with heavy snow in the interior Northeast. 

This year so far, it's been meh. Just the so-called nuisance snows around here that I've already talked about. 

But if you love winter, one place you should have been this month is Anchorage, Alaska and environs. 

Sure, you'd expect snow in Alaska during November. You know, the Great White North and all that. But they've been hammered far more than you'd expect.

Anchorage has already endured two bouts of huge snow dumps this month. The first came last week. 

According to Alaska Public Media: 

"Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson declared a snow emergency Thursday evening, freeing additional resources to clear local roads. In a statement, he said that street maintenance crews had responded to 40 downed trees during a 15-hour period."

Then, another storm hit Monday, with at around nine inches to a  foot of new snow in and around Anchorage. By Monday evening, the city had gotten 38.1 inches of snow so far this month. That's just a few tenths of an inch away from the all-time snowiest November on record up there. So they have half a month to break the record. I can't imagine they'll fall short 

Sadly, homelessness has become an increasingly serious issue in pretty much every city in the United States, including Anchorage. It's been decided by the Powers That Be, that it isn't worth trying to deal with the homeless crisis, or drug addiction, mental illness or inadequate wages for that matter.  

Thank you for letting me stand on my soapbox there. 

Anyway, the two feet of snow that plastered Anchorage helped lead to the deaths of four homeless people in the past week, says the Associated Press.

The brings the total number of homeless people who have died in Anchorage this year to 49. It's only the beginning of winter.  I wonder how many houseless people will die of the cold in Anchorage or elsewhere?

For motorists, the snow and ice has gotten so bad they've had to call out road graders to chop up the icy ruts caused by traffic in the storms. 

It's all going to get worse in Anchorage. An ugly rain and wet snow mixture is in the forecast there through Thursday morning. Then the mix is forecast to change to all snow before tapering off Friday afternoon. What a mess! 

On the bright side, it the snow won't be nearly as heavy as it has been the past few days. But it will get quite cold by the weekend, even by Anchorage standards.