Alaska News

Barrow broke its daily snowfall record Thursday

A snowfall in Barrow on Thursday broke the daily record for the nation's northernmost community.

The North Slope city of 4,000 reported 1.7 inches of snow. That beat the previous daily record of 0.5 inches, set in 1992.

The snow was part of a band of wintry weather that fell across the Slope, according to Fairbanks National Weather Service Meteorologist Lindsay Tardif-Huber. Deadhorse and Kaktovik also got snow Wednesday and Thursday.

By Friday morning, Barrow's snow had melted and gone, according to aviation webcams that showed clear, sunny weather in the city.

The Barrow snow comes on the heels of record high spring temperatures statewide, but still, snow on the Slope isn't unusual. Tardif-Huber said Barrow averages 7/10ths of an inch of snowfall during the month of June. Thursday's snowfall doesn't come close to beating the summer record —  set July 29, 1922 — when Barrow recorded 6 inches of snow.

"Even though it's June, people get the idea in their head that 'oh, it doesn't snow in June,'" Tardif-Huber said. "But at least in the Arctic there's a chance it can snow any time of the year, even in summer."

Suzanna Caldwell

Suzanna Caldwell is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News and Alaska Dispatch. She left the ADN in 2017.

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