In Weather Related News
The Yukon Quest has changed the trail in response to the effects of the recent ‘heat wave’ in Alaska and the Yukon.
The start was moved from the Chena River to Second Avenue in Fairbanks. The river is not considered stable enough to support the teams and spectators. Snow will be hauled in to cover the road for the start.
The finish has been moved from Whitehorse to Takhini Hot Springs, about 18 miles North, as there is no snow in Whitehorse.
For the second year in a row the trail over the American Summit is impassable, so the trail has routed around it.
The changes has reduced the length of the race to just over 900 miles from the normal 1000 miles.
In local news, the bridges, airports, schools, and government offices are closed and will remain closed until noon tomorrow at the earliest, which is anticipated to be the soonest the temperature will get above freezing and melt the ice that coats everything.
There are no plows, salt or sand trucks, snow tires – hell, there aren’t even windshield scrappers down here. I had to break the ice to open the garbage can which has a frosted flake look to it.
The local emergency management officials and government agencies at all levels took this storm seriously, so we haven’t had the mess that Atlanta is experiencing. People are staying home and off the roads, realizing that with the bridges closed you can’t go anywhere.
3 comments
three snow days in a row – in florida! I can see why it’s easy to convince people that global warming is a hoax.
I’d offer to send all our recent cold weather to the Yukon to help the sled dogs but I know it wouldn’t be near enough to help them. still, I’d be willing to make the sacrifice. 😉
with the bridges closed you can’t go anywhere.
people from snow country make fun of us, but along with the facts that nobody here knows how to drive in ice and snow, none of has snow tires or chains, never mind that no store owner here in their right mind would ever stock snow tires or chains, no local governments can afford to keep snow plows and on hand for a once-every-other-decade event….
there’s all the bridges. with all our bays and bayous and rivers and creeks and sounds and estuaries, you can’t swing a tire chain without hitting a bridge.
I’ll see your cold to the Yukon and raise with half of the rain going to California.
Yes, we got three snow days and the Yukon Quest trail got 10 days 40 degrees above normal. Traffic can’t move in Atlanta, but it also isn’t moving in interior Alaska or the Yukon because the rivers are thawing and unsafe.
The only East-West road open for its entire length on the Panhandle is US-90, which has flat, instead of arched or elevated bridges. A trip from Ft. Walton to Pensacola goes from 35 to 100 miles, and all of the traffic that would normally use I-10 has to use it. What a mess.