Anchorage’s low-snow December makes for idle plows and happy skaters

Just under 2 inches of new snow fell the entire month, making it one of the least snowy on record. Last season was the second snowiest on record. The winter of 2011-12 set the record for the city’s snowiest. A few winters later, Kutz said, “we dropped down to minimum snow.”

Comment from Gemini:

The attached articles document Anchorage's variable winter weather patterns over recent years, highlighting the trend of warmer, wetter Decembers with less snow than historically typical. For example, in December 2022, Anchorage experienced its wettest December on record, with heavy, wet snow rather than the drier, lighter snow typical of 1955 (Anchorage Daily News, Jan. 5, 2023: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/weather/2023/01/05/december-was-anchorages-wettest-and-second-snowiest-on-record/). This wetter, heavier snow, along with earlier snowmelt and later freeze-up, has created hazardous ice conditions in recent winters, as noted in the observation from February 13, 2023, where driving conditions were difficult due to ice underlying the heavy snow (Anchorage Daily News, Feb. 13, 2023: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2023/02/13/anchorage-has-seen-almost-double-its-usual-snowfall-since-december/). The December 6, 2024 observation about unusually high December rainfall echoes this pattern. The current observation, showing a low-snow December 2025, further reinforces this trend. While other observations discuss record snowfall in Anchorage (e.g., one from 2023 discussing double the usual snowfall), it's important to note that snowfall can vary significantly year to year. The overall pattern, however, seems to be toward warmer, wetter winters with less early-season snow.

This shift towards ice rather than snow is also reflected in observations discussing the growing popularity of winter activities like backcountry ice skating and fat-tire biking, as seen in observations from 2019 and 2020 (Anchorage Daily News, Dec. 19, 2019: https://www.adn.com/outdoors-adventure/2019/12/19/the-snow-is-low-but-the-ice-is-nice/ and Anchorage Daily News, Jan. 2, 2020: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2020/01/02/as-anchorage-warms-wintertime-is-defined-by-ice-as-much-as-snow/). The current observation, with its descriptions of ice skating and adapted backcountry skiing strategies, further demonstrates this adaptation to changing winter conditions. This aligns with broader climate change trends projected for Alaska, including warmer temperatures and increased precipitation, which may lead to more rain and less snow, particularly at lower elevations.