Stars are out this morning

Thank goodness the temperature has dropped down to 26° this morning. The snow is still crunchy and I am glad there will not be any melting today. We are in for a sunny day with anticipation of more snow tomorrow.

I drove into Anchorage late yesterday afternoon. With the warm air over the last two days, all the frost was gone from the marsh near the entrance to Girdwood. The trees at sea level had lost their grey frost sheen, and even the ice in Bird Creek had thawed! Let's hope that was a one-weekend event!

It was a beautiful clear day with the temperature holding at 26° most of the way through. However, at about 3pm I noticed the icicles dripping on the north side of my roof, strange. They did not completely melt, must have been from the warm radiating sun seen below. 

The forecast tells us we have 100% chance of snow tonight and tomorrow. The radar is a flashback to last winter. Last winter we had weekly storm systems that looked like straight highways of moisture coming up from the equator. I am very happy to see it as I am waiting for softer snow before I ski the mountain. The only drawback to the snow tomorrow is the fact that I will be driving into Anchorage to take the Master Gardener final test. Yikes! What will I be thinking of, the snow finally blanketing the soil surface to help protect the roots of our valuable trees. I will be glad that the temperatures did not warm up enough to activate the meristems and shoot apexes of plants. If that would have happened and the plants would have started growing and then those sensitive tips would have frozen! 

You saw the photo above of the sun glowing across the Turnagain Arm. Now look at this one below of the altocumulus clouds to moving in ahead of the storm.

Warm air creates crunchy snow surface

The temperature is steady at 33° this morning. Girdwood is experiencing light flurries that cannot decide if they want to be snow or rain. The snow has formed a crust on top due to the warmer air last night. I hear that skiing at the base is not so fun because of that. The light precipitation is accompanied by a fog bank. Above it is visible from the T looking toward downtown Girdwood.

Last night I shoveled most of my driveway (most because its a big drive with room for about 6 cars to park in) It was so warm I had to remove a couple of layers! This morning when I walked on the remaining snow, I could feel the crunch of breaking the top layer. The photo below kind of shows how warm its been. With the snow falling off the trees, the needles are shedding with it. Crunch crunch crunch....

Here is a shot at the base of the Daylodge. The fog clearly obscuring Max’s and the headwall. Our forecast is for the snow to taper off tonight and for clear skies tomorrow. Looks like the snow should return on Wednesday. Remember to check the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center for the most accurate weather.

From too cold to too warm, snow is slosh

It is utterly amazing how quick the air has warmed up. We have been in a deep-freeze, temperatures in single digits for a month. Yet in one day a weather system rides up here from the south and raises the temperature to 31° this morning. 

One would have thought everything would have taken weeks to thaw, but no. The snow and ice are falling off the trees and roof lines are dripping. At 10pm the temperature was 33°. The resort recorded 6 inches of snow at the base. It did not snow all day as expected in Girdwood, rather it started raining in the afternoon. Sad. At least it did not rain for long. The forecast still entails snow, but at this temperature, I don’t know. 

There was a major wreck at mile 91 of the Seward this evening. Please drive slow, just because you have a big SUV or 4-wheel drive does not mean you can drive normal highway speeds on a snow covered, wet, winding road. 

This photo shows what the conditions were today and at the time the accident happened. The snow had turned to rain around 3pm. With the warmer temperatures, the snow had started to become slushy.