SALON

Saturday, Mar 17, 2012 6:30 AM UTC

Alaska’s largest city eyes snow record

By

Topics: From the Wires,

Alaska's largest city eyes snow record(Credit: AP)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Even by Alaska standards, this winter is unusual for the hardy residents of the state’s largest city.

Near-record snowfall buried Anchorage neighborhoods, turning streets into canyons with walls of snow on each side. The snow’s weight collapsed the roofs of some buildings. Moose are fleeing into the city to get away from too-deep snow.

And the city dumps are close to overflowing with snow that may not melt entirely before next winter.

Love or hate it, some residents are hoping for more, at least another 3.3 inches. Then they could say they made it through the winter when the nearly 60-year record of 132.6 inches was broken.

“I want it destroyed,” resident Melissa Blair said. “I want to see another foot and knock that record out of the park.”

The extreme weather has not just struck Alaska this winter. It has also hit the Lower 48.

The first three months of 2012 have seen twice the normal number of tornadoes. And 36 states set daily high temperature records Thursday. The Lower 48 had its fourth warmest winter on record, while Alaska had its coldest January on record.

Two different weather phenomenon — 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, climate scientists say.

“When you start to see the extreme events become more common, that’s when you can say that it is a consequence of global warming,” University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver said.

Nearly 11 feet of snow has fallen on Anchorage this winter, forcing the city to haul away at least 250,000 tons of snow — or around 500 million pounds — to its six snow disposal sites.

The sites are close to overflowing. State and city crews are working around the clock to clear almost 2,500 miles of roads.

City street maintenance superintendent Dan Southard said the 125,000 truckloads of snow hauled by city crews would stack up to almost 1,200 feet if they were dumped onto a football field surrounded by walls.

That’s not even counting the loads disposed of by state crews.

“It’s an enormous task,” Southard said of this winter’s challenges.

This winter is just fine with Kenny Withrow, owner of Popeye’s Services, a snow-clearing outfit. He has been working well into the night, clearing driveways and parking lots and charging $350 to $1,200 for each roof clearing job.

Last year, he cleared maybe five roofs. This year, he’s done as many as 50, and the phone calls from worried residents keep coming. Withrow enjoys the snow because of its beauty and the snowmobiling adventures it makes possible.

He does wonder if it’s ever going to end, though. Still, he’s rooting for more of the white stuff. There’s that record to break.

“We’re so close,” he said. “We might as well just get it done.”

To date, the city has received 129.4 inches of snow this winter, compared with the historical average of 69.5 inches. No more is expected in the coming days, but snow can typically fall well into April, which averages four inches.

Two-tenths of an inch even fell on May 22, 1964, the latest Anchorage snow date on record, according to meteorologist Dave Stricklan with the National Weather Service.

Strickland said it’s hard to predict whether the city will win the big-snow crown.

“Bring it on,” said Strickland, an enthusiastic outdoorsman who goes skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling. “We could break the record every year and I’d be happy. But there probably would be a lot of unhappy people.”

Count Nick Wiederholt among them. He’s sick of snow and cold and can’t wait for the long, warm days of summer. But first, he’s bracing for the mess ahead when the snow melts.

“I always say I’ll survive winter if I can get a good summer,” he said.

___

AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

More Rachel D'oro.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations