Not Much Snow In Vermont, So Go To Buried Alaska?

Photo from a Facebook post by The Alaska Life gives a 
taste of what intersections in Anchorage, Alaska 
currently look like after record snowstorms, 

 We all know Alaska is for the most part bitterly cold in the winter. 

We'd expect snow to accompany that Arctic air, but this winter, populated parts of the state are absolutely buried in it.  

As of Tuesday, Anchorage, Alaska has so far had 104.6 inches of snow this season. That's easily the earliest in the season they've ever cracked the 100 inch snow mark.

 If Anchorage does not get so much as another flake of snow this winter (ha!) they've still had two feet more snow than they normally do in an entire season.

The city's last big installment of snow was the 16.6 inches that fell this past weekend. Since there's few places to put the snow, it's taking a long time to clean up the mess.  As of Tuesday, there was 37 inches of snow on the ground in Anchorage. 

It doesn't help that a frigid cold snap - fairly intense even by Anchorage standards has moved in.  High temperatures will be below zero until at least Saturday and low temperatures will flirt with 20 below. (Normal lows this time of year in Anchorage are in the low teens with normal highs in the low 20s)

There's also so much snow that roofs around Anchorage are beginning to collapse.  A warehouse roof collapsed this week near Anchorage. There were people inside, but they all managed to escape uninjured. 

Anchorage is also an earthquake-prone city, so I hope they don't have any temblors with all that snow on the roofs to make things even more unstable when the shaking starts.

Last year, 107.9 inches of snow fell in Anchorage, so this makes it the first time since at least the 1950s they've had back to back winters each with over 100 inches of snow. There were roof collapsed last year, too, one of which killed a person. Officials in Anchorage are worried the same thing could happen again in the coming days and weeks.

More snow is in the Anchorage forecast from Saturday night into Tuesday night. 

Juneau is much more temperate than the rest of the state.  Snow tends to come and go there, but this month has been ridiculous.  Back to back snowstorms in mid-January amounted to 64.7 inches in less than two weeks. Snow cover on the ground peaked at 36 inches.

The snow was so heavy that it sank some boats in Juneau harbor 

Then it turned warm, with 3.5 inches of rain within six days. The snow cover melted to zero with six days. The snowmelt and rain obviously created  some flooding around Juneau.  

The snow in parts of Alaska is no doubt extreme, but National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider told Alaska Public Radio that this winter's cold is not that odd for Alaska.

Up in Fairbanks, it has been often in the 40s below zero for the past week. But it used to go to 50 below or colder in Fairbanks every year. Now it's maybe once every decade. 

That's all thanks to climate change. 

There's even some speculation and research suggesting the snowier winters swaths of Alaska are seeing in recent years has to do with climate change. The air near Alaska is now tending to be warmer than it used to be. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so precipitation has been increasing in Alaska. Four of the top 10 wettest years in Anchorage have happened since 2004.  

"Warmer" in Alaska can still mean temperatures well below freezing, so of course much of the extra precipitation can be snow.  

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.