Sunday, August 29, 2010

Early Season Snows

Okay, so there is no snow in sight, but as we come up to the end of August the climatological chances of snow are increasing. And today is the 88th aniversery of the greatest August snow of record, and there are only two autumns with measurable snow before September 10th:

August 29, 1922: 3.0" Measurable snow was recorded at most observing locations in the Interior.
Sept 2-3, 1980 3.1"
Sept 5, 1980 0.2"

For the 1980 event, College 5NW, at 900' MSL, measured 4" of snow.

Trace snowfalls have occurred more often. The last time it snowed before Sept 10th was Aug 31, 2005, when there was a brief mixed rain and snow shower just before midnight at the airport.

All this is of course for in town. This time of year snowfall is usually extremely elevation dependent. The most recent August hill-snow in the Fairbanks area was on Aug 22 1996, when elevations above 2300' had 1 to 2 inches of snow, 0.2" here at Keystone Ridge (1600'), and there were some flurries as low as 800' MSL.

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