Spring snowfall breaks Anchorage snow record
Source: Agencies |
April 9, 2012, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A SPRING snowfall has broken the nearly 60-year-old seasonal snow record of Alaska's largest city.
Inundated with nearly double the snow they're used to, Anchorage residents have been expecting to see this season's snowfall surpass the record of 336.8 centimeters set in the winter of 1954-55.
The 8.64 centimeters that fell by Saturday afternoon brings the total to 133.6 inches. National Weather Service meteorologist Shaun Baines said forecasters don't expect more than an inch of additional accumulation.
Extreme weather has hit not only Alaska. It's also struck the lower 48 US states, where the first three months of 2012 have seen twice the normal number of tornadoes and one of the warmest winters on record.
Two different weather phenomena - La Nina and its northern cousin the Arctic Oscillation - are mostly to blame, meteorologists say. Global warming could also be a factor because it is supposed to increase weather extremes, according to climate scientists.
Even by Alaska standards, Anchorage has been walloped by snow. City snow removal crews have worked around the clock to clear roadways and haul more than 1.91 million cubic meters of snow to the city's six snow disposal sites, which are close to capacity. That's not even counting the numerous loads disposed of by state crews.
Inundated with nearly double the snow they're used to, Anchorage residents have been expecting to see this season's snowfall surpass the record of 336.8 centimeters set in the winter of 1954-55.
The 8.64 centimeters that fell by Saturday afternoon brings the total to 133.6 inches. National Weather Service meteorologist Shaun Baines said forecasters don't expect more than an inch of additional accumulation.
Extreme weather has hit not only Alaska. It's also struck the lower 48 US states, where the first three months of 2012 have seen twice the normal number of tornadoes and one of the warmest winters on record.
Two different weather phenomena - La Nina and its northern cousin the Arctic Oscillation - are mostly to blame, meteorologists say. Global warming could also be a factor because it is supposed to increase weather extremes, according to climate scientists.
Even by Alaska standards, Anchorage has been walloped by snow. City snow removal crews have worked around the clock to clear roadways and haul more than 1.91 million cubic meters of snow to the city's six snow disposal sites, which are close to capacity. That's not even counting the numerous loads disposed of by state crews.
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