We have had extremely unusual weather this autumn. I believe you sometimes
read our local newspaper online and may be aware of our local conditions,
but in case you haven't I will tell you that on 22 November RAIN fell in
Fairbanks (and across much of the state even as far north as Barrow!) and it
continued to rain steadily for over 48 hours! More than 2 cm accumulated and
you can imagine what a mess it was since we had about 25 cm of snow on the
ground already and the ground was frozen. Schools were canceled for 2 days,
as were classes at UAF and many state offices were closed. We stayed home,
off the roads since the ice was so terrible. We received a little snow,
finally, which made the roads and trails much more passable. But the
temperature dropped and by Monday, a week after the rain, Fairbanks
temperatures were at -34C! We seem to be living in an environment of
extremes! Since then it has warmed and clouded over and the forecast is for
2 to 7 cm of snow.
The temperature when I took the photos yesterday was 17 cm and our snow
depth (including the 3 or 4 cm of thick crusty ice beneath the 4 cm of fresh
snow on top) is 20.3 cm.
