Blue bird day over the softest snow ever

The most beautiful day of the season. The lightest snow of the season. The softest snow of the season. 

The perfect day for a dog mushing adventure. Local dog musher takes guests for a ride in the soft, quiet snow under a blue bird sky.

Alyeska's upper tram seen from Moose Meadows.

Snow! Perfect snow, powder day

Snow! Light, fluffy, white, and slow moving, real snow. Not wet, not sloshy, nice soft snow. When the snow piles up on the boughs like seen above, we know its quality. As we all have known since we were children, snowflakes have six points on them. This gives them "loft". Loft means the flakes stack up on each other at different points leaving space between flakes. When the air temperature is colder, 32° or below, the snow in Girdwood is drier with lower water content. This is what makes our snow so powdery, fluffy, and lofty. 

Its a beautiful day in Girdwood, all the skiers and riders have got to be loving it! The temperatures in Glacier Valley are just at freezing and they are expected to fall this evening and tomorrow. 

Nice dry snow all day in Girdwood

It has been a wonderful day of snow all day long! Perfect dry snow, nice fresh powder snow on the mountain which is perfect for skiing. It was quite a busy day at Alyeska, the Alyeska Cup races were going on, lots of school kids, and ski clubs. But it was well worth it for all of them due to the great conditions. 

The morning started out a little warm at 32°, however it had dropped to 27° by sunset. The snow just keeps falling. Into the night, I would say by night fall the base received at least 6 inches of new snow in the last twenty four hours. For some reason the Alyeska Snow Report on their web site is not listing any snow. But believe me and these pictures, it is snowing. 

Tomorrow is a holiday, I expect a lot of travelers coming to the slopes and back country for some super fun skiing. Be sure to check CNFAIC for back country conditions and Alaska 511 for road conditions. 

Nice powder snow in the valley today

The bitter cold broke the spell of the warm rain, and now the snow has briefly broken the spell of the bitter cold. Briefly. Last night Girdwood received 3 inches of snow, powdery, white, fluffy snow! Not wet, not mixed with rain. It was a lovely sight out the windows this morning. 

I had to drive into Anchorage and it was a blustery Tuesday along the Turnagain Arm. No white-out, not much snow falling at all. However, snow was blowing all over the highway. There were snow dunes on the shoulder along Potter Marsh, pretty. 

Though the weather forecast was for temperatures to rise, expected when there is cloud cover, the temperature stayed around 10° in the city. Upon return to Glacier Valley this afternoon, I came into a temperature of 25°, much more pleasant that the recent single digits. We could still use some more snow. Below is a picture of my favorite snow gauge, the picnic table at the Girdwood Fire Department. The photo with the bluer sky was taken in November. Since then we have had three warm spells when the snow has melted. There have been three small snow showers since, including last night. Notice the picnic table looks about the same as in November. By this time of year, the table is usually a snow mound. The lack of snow is a bit disconcerting. Not only for weather watchers and those concerned with the environment, but for the Resort and their ski mountain as well. I hope we will be blessed with our usual February dump of snow starting this weekend!

 January 29, 2013

November 17, 2012