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Not a Day Below Zero in Anchorage this Year

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Photo Credit: Mark Newman Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom

Photo Credit: Mark Newman Stock Connection Worldwide/Newscom

The coldest it has been on this day in Anchorage, Alaska, since 1954 is 20 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. The coldest it has been on New Year’s Eve in that same time period is even colder: -25. But this year, the lows are expected to be 33 and 27 degrees respectively — meaning that 2014 will be the first year on record that the temperature didn’t drop below zero.

As Alaska Dispatch News notes, the last time the temperature was below zero (again: in Fahrenheit) was Dec. 26, 2013. That was the tail end of a cold snap, of the kind not uncommon in winter — particularly in Alaska. But ever since, temperatures have been above zero according to readings taken at the airport, with low temperatures reaching zero only once, on February 11.

Complete annual records from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration begin on Jan. 1, 1954. Since then, the number of days Anchorage went below zero each year has dropped from an average of 33.2 in the 1960s to 16 in the 2000s. The year with the second-fewest below-zero days was 2002. (Read more on how there wasn’t one day below zero in Anchorage, Alaska HERE)

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Temps plunge U.S. into deep freeze, with snow for Las Vegas

By Mark Guarino. As colder-than-average temperatures locked large swaths of the United States into a deep freeze Tuesday, snow was likely in an unlikely place – Las Vegas. . .

The NWS said Las Vegas temperatures fell below freezing Monday and would continue through Thursday at an average low of 30 degrees. Up to 3 inches of snow was expected by Tuesday night.

“Many tourists who come to Las Vegas may be unprepared for the true winter-like conditions this storm could bring with it,” the NWS said in a statement. “Travel conditions could be difficult, if not impossible, on area roads.”

Las Vegas does not have snowplows but the Nevada Department of Transportation said it has six snowplows at the ready if the snow poses a significant threat to roads. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is expecting about 340,000 visitors for New Year’s Eve celebrations, it said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Jimmy Kimmel Pokes Fun at LA News Outlets Reporting ‘Arctic’ Conditions in the City (+video)

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Screen shot 2013-12-15 at 2.30.40 AMA high of 50 degrees is just too low for local NBC, Fox and CBS affiliates

Jimmy Kimmel spent a good portion of his childhood in New York, so he knows cold. On [a recent broadcast], however, the late-night comedian reminded his audiences that many local Los Angeles news reporters do not.

In the wake of the cold front moving through Southern California this week, labeled “arctic” by some outlets, Kimmel compiled a cut of the reporters racing to cover the weather.

Read more from this story HERE.

Severe Winter Weather Slams Much of U.S.: “This is Not Texas Weather…It’s Alaska, or Idaho”

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The wicked wintry weather that pummeled the West Coast is now barreling across the country, threatening to ruin millions of holiday travel plans just before Thanksgiving.

More than 300 flights have already been canceled in the Dallas-Fort Worth area — not exactly a bastion for snow storms. Sleet and freezing rain will keep blanketing parts of the Southern Plains and Southern Rockies on Monday.

“It’s going to be so close to freezing, that’s when we’re anticipating it to be bad,” Sgt. Lonny Haschel of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

And after the storm deluges parts of the South with rain Monday evening, it’ll start zeroing in on the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. And that could spell more travel nightmares.

It’s not just the bad timing that has travelers riled up. In many of the places, this kind of weather isn’t supposed to happen.”This is not Texas weather, man,” driver Ron Taylor told CNN affiliate KTVT. “This is Alaska, or Idaho.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Alaskans Experience Warmest October on Record

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Photo Credit: WeatherBell AnalyticsNow is the time of year when Alaska’s snowpack starts to build and temperatures plunge as the days become shorter and shorter. But this year, October has turned out to be more like September, with rainstorms instead of snowstorms, and some of the mildest temperatures on record for the month, particularly across interior Alaska.

While the warm weather pattern, which has been dominated by a high pressure area in the upper atmosphere, is beginning to change with colder and snowier conditions arriving just in time for Halloween, the above-average temperatures have already carved October 2013’s place in the record books.

According to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, rain in the city is rare after October 20, yet it rained there on Oct. 28 with no snow on the ground, an occurrence that “appears to be unprecedented in more than a century of weather observations,” the NWS said in a note on its Facebook page. Temperatures in the 50s at Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Greely were the warmest on record for so late in the fall.

The warm weather led to an even more unusual sight for the fall: smoke from an active wildfire. The Mississippi wildfire, which started in May about 70 miles southeast of Fairbanks, flared up again on Oct. 28, when strong winds were blowing and there were record warm temperatures in the lower 60s.

Read more from this story HERE.