Alaska Science Forum: Snow’s absence and welcome presence
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 7:23 am
Rick Thoman noted in a recent report that the paucity of 2024-2025 snowfall in Anchorage and other Southcentral Alaska locations may be unprecedented in the era of modern records.
“For the three locations with 50-plus years of snowfall data, both Anchorage airport and Alyeska had the lowest mid-winter totals, while the Matanuska Experiment Farm was third lowest, with 1981-1982 and 2015-2016 having lower reported totals,” wrote the climatologist for the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A strong weather pattern is partly to blame for the so-far historic lack of snow in Alaska’s largest city, which forced the Iditarod sled dog race to start in Fairbanks.
Rick Thoman created this graphic to display the snow country wise email marketing list drought measured at Anchorage International Airport in the 2024-2025 season thus far. (Graphic by Rick Thoman)
Rick Thoman created this graphic to display the snow drought measured at Anchorage International Airport in the 2024-2025 season thus far. (Graphic by Rick Thoman)
“(A) low pressure was anchored just east of Kamchatka and south to southwest winds prevailed across all of Alaska,” Thoman wrote in his newsletter. “This is a classic ‘warm winter’ pattern for Alaska and similar to the mid-atmosphere patterns during mid-winters in 1985-1986, 2002-2003 and 2015-2016.”
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UAF Geophysical Institute space physicist Peter Delamere recently rode his fat-tire bike over frozen vegetation south of the Alaska Range until his tires finally bit snow a bit farther north. He did not stop riding until he reached Nome, about 1,000 miles away.
On March 12, 2025, Delamere rolled under the burled sprucewood arch in Nome tied with six other fatbikers. They all finished the Iditarod Trail Invitational 1,000-miler after starting from near Anchorage a little more than 17 days earlier.
Before and after his ride, Delamere, 55, was helping his colleagues launch sounding rockets from Poker Flat Research Range to learn more about the aurora. Reflecting on weeks in the saddle of a loaded bicycle rolling on tires as thick as a loaf of bread, he remembered the strange sensation of riding through Southcentral’s snowless terrain.
“For the three locations with 50-plus years of snowfall data, both Anchorage airport and Alyeska had the lowest mid-winter totals, while the Matanuska Experiment Farm was third lowest, with 1981-1982 and 2015-2016 having lower reported totals,” wrote the climatologist for the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
A strong weather pattern is partly to blame for the so-far historic lack of snow in Alaska’s largest city, which forced the Iditarod sled dog race to start in Fairbanks.
Rick Thoman created this graphic to display the snow country wise email marketing list drought measured at Anchorage International Airport in the 2024-2025 season thus far. (Graphic by Rick Thoman)
Rick Thoman created this graphic to display the snow drought measured at Anchorage International Airport in the 2024-2025 season thus far. (Graphic by Rick Thoman)
“(A) low pressure was anchored just east of Kamchatka and south to southwest winds prevailed across all of Alaska,” Thoman wrote in his newsletter. “This is a classic ‘warm winter’ pattern for Alaska and similar to the mid-atmosphere patterns during mid-winters in 1985-1986, 2002-2003 and 2015-2016.”
* * *
UAF Geophysical Institute space physicist Peter Delamere recently rode his fat-tire bike over frozen vegetation south of the Alaska Range until his tires finally bit snow a bit farther north. He did not stop riding until he reached Nome, about 1,000 miles away.
On March 12, 2025, Delamere rolled under the burled sprucewood arch in Nome tied with six other fatbikers. They all finished the Iditarod Trail Invitational 1,000-miler after starting from near Anchorage a little more than 17 days earlier.
Before and after his ride, Delamere, 55, was helping his colleagues launch sounding rockets from Poker Flat Research Range to learn more about the aurora. Reflecting on weeks in the saddle of a loaded bicycle rolling on tires as thick as a loaf of bread, he remembered the strange sensation of riding through Southcentral’s snowless terrain.