ANCHORAGE — Winter conditions more closely associated with Alaska have returned to the state’s largest city after two years of low snowfall totals.
National Weather Service meteorologist Rebecca Duell (DOOL’) says Anchorage has received 23.8 inches of snow so far in January.
That’s the second highest total for the start of a calendar year since records began being taken at the airport in 1953. The highest snowfall 23 days into a new year was 26.6 inches of snow in 2007. Coming in third was 2012, when 23.5 inches of snow fell between Jan. 1 and Jan. 23.
A large chunk of this year’s snowfall total came last weekend, when 13 inches were reported at the Anchorage airport.
For the entire winter season, Anchorage has had 44.3 inches of snow by Jan. 23, just a couple of inches off what is considered normal.
But it’s more than the last two years combined. The 2015-16 winter season saw 25.8 inches of snow, while the winter season of 2014-15 only had 18.3 inches of snow on the ground by Jan. 23.
