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Sudden snow dump slickens Anchorage roads after weekend rains

An Anchorage police vehicle blocks the intersection of Rabbit Creek Road and the Old Seward Highway due to slick conditions on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.
Matt Faubion
/
Alaska Public Media
An Anchorage police vehicle blocks the intersection of Rabbit Creek Road and the Old Seward Highway due to slick conditions on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.

A burst of snowfall Monday morning ended Southcentral Alaska’s weekend bout of warmth and rain, leaving roads slick and dozens of vehicles stuck in Anchorage.

Nearly 100 accidents and vehicles in distress were reported to Anchorage police by about 2 p.m. That included nearly two dozen in the ditch near Rabbit Creek Road and the Old Seward Highway, which was closed for hours Monday morning due to the crashes.

The Anchorage School District canceled after-school activities for the day. People Mover buses were operating in town with delays due to road conditions.

A tow truck hauls away a vehicle stranded near Rabbit Creek Road and the Old Seward Highway on Monday, Jan. 27, 2025.
Matt Faubion
/
Alaska Public Media

National Weather Service meteorologist Michael Brown says the snow briefly fell at an inch per hour in parts of Anchorage. It’s a sharp change from the warm, wet weather brought to town by an atmospheric river last week.

“That cold air surging over the Cook Inlet’s produced a little bit of instability, and we get these convective snow showers coming off the Cook Inlet and moving into town,” he said.

Brown said weekend rainfall ranged from half an inch in West Anchorage to 5 inches in southeast parts of town. The city matched a record high for Sunday of 46 degrees — so warm the Alaska Zoo reported it roused two of its bears. Wind gusts hit 80 miles per hour on the upper Hillside, and topped 65 miles per hour at lower elevations.

“We saw a gust as high as 68 miles per hour at the airport, which is the highest gust we've seen in quite some time,” Brown said.

Brown said the snow will give way to falling temperatures, which will near zero as the weekend approaches.

“As we head through the week, we're going to see the coldest weather … since the start of the year,” he said. “So we're looking at highs in the single digits, so then lows probably Thursday morning, Friday morning, Saturday morning, below zero.”

The weekend conditions also posed a greater threat for avalanches, with the Alyeska Resort in Girdwood shutting down ski operations at upper elevations due to a slide above Glacier Bowl discovered Sunday. No one was caught in the slide, the resort reported. The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities was conducting avalanche mitigation work Monday morning near Girdwood, along the Seward and Portage Glacier highways.

According to the Chugach National Forest Avalanche Information Center, considerable avalanche danger exists in the Turnagain Pass, Summit Lake, Seward and Lost Lake areas.

In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Hatcher Pass Road remained closed Monday at Mile 10.8, just past the Skeetawk ski area, due to multiple natural avalanches crossing the road over the weekend. The Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center reported considerable avalanche hazards above 2,500 feet, with moderate hazard below that altitude. 

Chris Klint is a web producer and breaking news reporter at Alaska Public Media. Reach him at cklint@alaskapublic.org.