the Weather

A late spring - snow fell this past April 25, 2008 after the ground was already cleared from winter snowfall.

At work today several of us were standing around (on our break of course!) talking about the weather and wondering if snow will come early this year and will there be lots of it? The general consensus is YES on both accounts. We have had a very late spring, an extremely cool, wet summer and the fireweed have grown higher than usual - according to some long-time Alaskans the height of the fireweed predict the upcoming level of snow. So if the wet weather holds throughout the rest of the year, it will turn to snow when the temperatures drop.

And as for how early winter will come....well, the mountains near Palmer already have termination dust. Usually we don't get that until late August. In Anchorage, we've already seen termination dust but it melted away. It's in the mid-forties at night.

This year if my mom offers to bring mittens for the Alaska State Fair, I might just take her up on it!

Alaskan Dictionary - Termination dust is the first snowfall on the mountain tops signalling the termination of summer.