It’s so cold and snowy in Alaska that fuel oil is thickening and roofs are collapsing
ANKERAGE, Alaska — Much of Alaska is frozen, with temperatures well below zero. Anchorage has seen some of the coldest temperatures in years and the mayor has opened heating facilities for people who are homeless or without reliable heating.
To the south, in the state capital, Juneau, snow covered streets and roofs as part of a two-day storm that helped set a new January snowfall record of 7 feet (2 meters) for the city, located in a relatively temperate rainforest. That’s after back-to-back storms hit Juneau earlier this month.
Anchorage surpassed 8 feet of snow this week, the earliest date the state’s largest city has ever reached that mark.
For much of last week, temperatures were minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 40 degrees Celsius) or colder in Fairbanks, an inland city of about 32,000 residents and a popular destination for seeing the Northern Lights. In other remote towns, the thermometer fluctuated between minus 30 Fahrenheit (minus 34.4 degrees Celsius) and minus 20 Fahrenheit (minus 28.9 degrees Celsius) for days.
“That’s a pretty solid streak,” National Weather Service meteorologist Dustin Saltzman said, adding that it was the coldest outbreak in at least several years.
It’s not just Fairbanks: Much of Alaska saw temperatures in the single digits or below zero on Thursday.
Anchorage, which reached minus 27.2 degrees Celsius late Wednesday night, is experiencing its coldest temperatures in 15 years, said Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist at the local weather service office. Temperatures there were expected to remain below zero through Friday, before reaching the teens by Sunday, according to the weather forecast.
In the small town of Kotzebue, 550 miles (885 kilometers) by plane to the northwest, temperatures of minus 30 Fahrenheit (minus 34.4 degrees Celsius) and lower caused heating fuel to become so thick that homes’ heating systems and stoves stopped working, according to the Anchorage Daily News reported. City Manager Tessa Baldwin told the newspaper that water pipes in the city have frozen.
That coincided with challenges south-central Alaska’s largest utility, ENSTAR Natural Gas Co., has had with two wells at a gas storage facility built to meet peak winter demand. The system was “the most stressed I have ever seen,” largely due to gas supply problems related to the well problems, company Chairman John Sims told a news conference in Anchorage.
Anchorage resident DuShan Vujnovic, a native of Serbia who works for the Alaska Railroad, said this winter has been “too much.”
This is Vujnovic’s fifth winter in Anchorage and it was the coldest. As if that wasn’t bad enough, last week his job took him north to Fairbanks.
“I’ve never experienced anything this cold before, but I think what’s bothering me most about this is the snow,” he said. “I drive a white car, so sometimes it’s hard to even find it in the snow after not leaving the house for two days.”
Meanwhile, parts of Southeast Alaska were almost balmy by comparison, including in Ketchikan, where it was almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) and raining on Thursday. Ketchikan is closer to Seattle than Anchorage.
Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson last week signed an emergency declaration effective through Feb. 9 and added the warming centers, some of which are open 24 hours a day.
A man believed to have fled a fire at a home in the south-central community of Sutton was found dead early Wednesday, possibly from exposure, Alaska State Troopers said.
Anchorage sent a letter to 1,000 businesses warning them to vacate their properties until snow was removed from their roofs. At least two commercial buildings have collapsed under the weight and crews are shoveling thick layers of snow from rooftops across the city.
An Anchorage elementary school was closed Thursday due to problems with a boiler, and schools have had six days of remote learning so far this winter.
Paul Ferucci, a retired physician from Anchorage, tested his cold-weather gear, including clothing, gloves and face masks, while training to compete in the Iditarod Trail Invitational. That’s not the famous dog sled race, but rather a human race where they run, cycle or ski 300 or 1,000 miles (482 or 1,609 kilometers) along the same brutal route.
Ferucci said he saw the temperature in part of Anchorage on Thursday was minus 20 Fahrenheit (minus 28.9 degrees Celsius) and that he could not remember the last time the temperature had been that low.
“It’s been cold and we’ve had a lot of snow,” he said. “And really, if you like the outdoors in the winter, it was one of the best winters I can remember.”
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Bohrer reported from Juneau.