Spring officially begins in a week, though warm weather and lack of snowfall in the eastern Interior makes it seem like the equinox is already here. But it’s a different story on the western side of the state.
Much of what little snow has fallen in the eastern Interior has melted away this week, due to a warm spell that’s set in over the region. Unlike the situation in the western Interior and the southern slope of the Brooks Range.
“In the Koyukuk Valley, there’s been a lot of snow – in some places, double the normal snowpack,” says Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with UAF’s Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy. “In Bettles, (it’s) the greatest snowpack since the winter of 1992-’93.”