Alaska News

It's official: Anchorage has a new minimum seasonal snowfall record

The outcome hasn't been in doubt for awhile, but on Wednesday, the National Weather Service made it official: The winter of 2014-15 was the least snowy on record for Anchorage.

For record-keeping purposes, snowfall seasons end June 30. The following day, the weather service announced the new record -- 25.1 inches for the season -- in a public statement. That's about 5 inches less than the previous record set more than 50 years ago, in the winter of 1957-58 when only 30.4 inches fell.

A chart tweeted out by National Weather Service Anchorage shows this year's record low snowfall was only about a third of the normal seasonal snowfall of 74.5 inches.

The weather service also noted that only three of the previous 12 months have had more than average precipitation. The lack of snow cover and precipitation has left Anchorage with "highly combustible ground cover," the weather service said.

Megan Edge

Megan Edge is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News.

ADVERTISEMENT