Alaska's Winter

Before any of Iowa’s snow had started, Alaska was getting hit hard. It is said that this is the worst winter yet that anyone in Alaska can remember. There was so much snow that people couldn’t see out of their windows, a tanker got stuck in ice-choked waters from delivering fuel on time, and people were using their snow packed roofs for sledding.

Alaska received more than twice as much snow as usual. The National Guard was called in to bring in more shovels because everyone was using theirs so much that they were breaking.

More than 26 feet of snow has fallen in the city of Valdez. The 8-foot snow piles have blocked people in house from even being able to look outside. More than 14 feet has fallen in Cordova. The Alaskan National Guard had to help move snow even though they were running out of places to put it. People have begun hauling snow piles into snow melting machines.

Although, some people seem to love the weather. Terry Kelly, who wasted no time Thursday strapping on cross country skis in the city's expansive Kincaid Park said, "The snow is great for skiing, for downhill skiing, for alpine skiing. It's beautiful, it makes the holiday season awesome, fresh snow increases the light in town so it makes it brighter in winter. To me, it's great."

Alaska has gotten so much snow because of two atmospheric patterns: the Pacific weather pattern, known as La Nina, and the Artic Oscillation. These two patterns have been strong this year and because of the changing air patterns in the south, it keeps all of the extremely cold air locked up in the Arctic.

In a previous post, I talked about how the winter for the mainland states will be milder than usual due to the North Atlantic Oscillation. This is different from the Arctic Oscillation. When the AO (Arctic Oscillation) index is positive, surface pressure is low in the polar region. This helps the middle latitude jet stream to blow strongly and consistently from west to east, thus keeping cold Arctic air locked in the polar region. When the AO index is negative, there tends to be high pressure in the polar region, weaker zonal winds, and greater movement of frigid polar air into middle latitudes.

Although NAO is a part of AO it affects different areas. A large difference in the pressure at the two stations (a high index year, denoted NAO+) leads to increased westerlies and, consequently, cool summers and mild and wet winters in Central Europe and its Atlantic facade. In contrast, if the index is low (NAO-), westerlies are suppressed, these areas suffer cold winters and storms track southerly toward the Mediterranean Sea.

Recently the temperature in Alaska has reached up to 35 degrees. This poses another threat, however. With it heating up, this could potentially cause avalanches. The one road leading out of the city was closed, and the city warned people not to stand under the eaves of their houses to clear snow off the roof.

Personally, I would love to be in Alaska during this. As I’ve said before, I love snow and with that overabundance, it would be so fun to be able to sled and snowboard everyday.