Early snowfall ices Fairbanks roads, but causes few accidents
Published Sunday, September 28, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS -- A sheet of snow fell on the Tanana Valley on Saturday night, coming a couple of weeks earlier than usual and causing a few minor fender benders as of midday today.
The show showers left almost one and a half inches of accumulation at Fairbanks International Airport after the weather system formed Saturday night over Ester and crossed the urban core of Fairbanks, said Rick Thoman, a lead forecaster for the National Weather Service’s regional office.
“Definitely not a widespread snowfall,” Thoman said, “but it was right over where about 80 percent of the people in the (greater Fairbanks) area live.”
Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Chad Goeden said a handful of drivers reported sliding off the road. As a whole, however, there were no reports of major accidents Saturday night or early Sunday, he said.
Areas immediately outside Fairbanks escaped the season’s first snowfall, with North Pole, for example, seeing only a “trace” of snow, Thoman said.
But snow also fell Saturday in other parts of Interior Alaska. Thoman said spots between Anderson and Healy, two cities south of Fairbanks, saw 6 inches of snow on the ground as of Sunday.
Saturday’s snowfall in Fairbanks came two weeks earlier than usual: The historical average for the first day of snow is Oct. 10. Last year’s first snow came by way of an inch of accumulation on Oct. 6 of that year. It was the first autumn with a snow-free September in a decade.
Goeden said troopers had responded to a few calls from drivers whose cars or trucks wound up in the ditch, including a pickup truck that left the road at the intersection of the Steese Expressway and Chena Hot Springs Road at dawn. But he said drivers seem to have responded to the first snowfall of this season with caution.
“It’s been pretty quiet so far this morning,” he said.
Thoman, the forecaster, said the snowfall will make it colder tonight and predicted temperatures could drop to a low of between 15 and 25 degrees. The snow, however, has likely stopped for a few days.
“No more snow for the near future,” he said.
Community Discussion
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Does the NewsMiner really think I didn't see it snowing?? Thank goodness they were here to report this story or I would have imagined that we were blanketed with an inch and a half of bird poop.
Tomorrow's headline: DAY FOLLOW'S NIGHT: NEWSMINER STAFF STILL BAFFLED!
Did somebody wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?
cranky much, outtatowner? It's customary for newspapers to do weather stories on the first snow the season. DUH.
I just got a call back from the state's Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.
Their northern region spokeswoman told me their crews are salting a lot of the state-maintained roads on hills outside of town today. She said the crews are set to switch to their winter schedules this week, which will leave them on call more often than the rest of the year. FYI.
I understand it's customary...I don't understand the point.
I'll chime in as well, Outtatowner. Yeah, it is obvious, but it is of local interest. For stories like this, where most folks know, 'hey, it snowed!' we try to go into details about how the storm came earlier than average, how well people are coping with it on the roads — remember last year, how cars were sliding off all over the place — and other facts that don't immediately come to mind. And, of course, it is the first of the season, so we need to mention it just like we do greenup and breakup. We don't do a story every time a flake hits the ground, but if it's the first fall of the year or if it's exceptional in some way — the July floods come to mind — we'll be sure to let you know about it.
You in particular might not be interested, but we try to cover a wide enough range of news that there's something for everybody and every interest.
And it wasn't two weeks after the fact, ala the jet engine story. :)
I was glad to know it snowed in town. We live in North Pole and it didn't snow out here. We have kids that live at our other house on Chena Ridge that we worry about. It is nice to know if it has snowed there so we can call and tell them to be careful driving.
truthinnews~ FYI, I was on my way home last night at approximately 8pm from Safeway to my home off Plack road. I assure you it was snowing. ;)
Last year I slid into the stop sign at the end of my street. You know what I was doing two seconds before that, complaining about idiots driving in the first snow.....that stop sign got mowed down three times last year. LOL. (I only did it once)
I have a personal policy for all of those motorheads who can't differentiate between residential areas, residential thoroughfares/arteries, and the highway/freeway, wherein different issues or concerns exist for each setting. Issues that are oh so pronounced during that first snow when so many folks seem to forget that ice is slick, rain is wet, and that both interfere with traction.
For example, kids and dogs play in residential areas.. lots of kids and dogs, sometimes. And families too!!
For those who still insist on driving through Rosie Creek and Cripple Creek subdivisions at 50+ miles per hour, I will stop when I see you in the ditch (either upside-dodwn, or right-side-up), and exclaim that it looks as though you were going too fast for conditions. I'll then likely comment that "while it would be a neighborly thing for me to call a wrecker, or pull you out myself, the fact of the matter is that my family is MUCH safer with you in the ditch, than with you on the roadway, behaving like a 16-yr.-old 'Speed Racer'."
Please act like there are other persons in this world than just yourself, and drive that way, too, and perhaps those 'others' will do the same... if you're fortunate.
Yes, that includes you folks who were in various states of disrepair or stress on the side of Cripple Creek Road today.
Have a GREAT winter, y'all!!
Oops. I meant to write in my previous post that roads crews are "sanding" the roads, not "salting" them.
I am interested in weather and appreciate stories about it. The various microclimates here are quite interesting.
Im in the foothills of the Alaska Range; we got almost 10 inches...I couldnt resist, I got out the snow-go today and took my first ride of the season :o)
Thanks Pixie for cluing us in! Maybe we should have you call us and tell us when it is snowing, so we can call our kids and tell them.
Better yet, Pixie, you can call the kids. They never listen to me anyway!
Thanks for posting the snow story. I lived in FBKS for several years and I remember the awe of the first snow. It meant that we were able to see the tourists leave and get on with being about FBKS and Alaska.
a good story for folks Outside and also the cubicle office workers.
even here in minn there are always people who seem to forget from one year to the next that snow is slippery! the news is always so funny the evening after the first snow, fenderbenders in the hunderds!
Outta -- a newspaper provides an historic record for the future. it does not only freeze a moment in time (excuse the pun) for readers that day, but it also allows others who weren't in that place then or who, like me, aren't there now, to know what's going on in a particular place at a particular time. that's the job of the paper, to be a record of events, minor and major. I know of very few people who read a paper cover to cover and can say that everything they read is relevent to them. On the other hand, imagine if you were digging in your back yard and found a time capsule in which a 100-year old paper was found. You'd likely find all of the info therein pretty interesting.
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