How much snow does Alaska average each year ? What are temperatures like in summer ? See pictures

Good grief, today, it’s 39 degrees in Lynchburg, VA.  Yet, it is 33 degrees in Anchorage; 35 in Juneau; 41 in Skagway; and 39 in Ketchikan.  Alaska is most certainly having a heat wave today, when just other day, it was snowing !

 

However, this past week was not Anchorage first snow fall for 2012.  It was Tuesday, October 30, 2012.  Here’s a snow angel, left in the new snow on Potter Marsh.  Picture by  MARC LESTER — Anchorage Daily News

 

How much snow does Alaska average a year ?  From Answer.com

Alaska is a huge state with large variations in terrain, so snowfall varies a lot. Snowfall is least in extreme SE Alaska and also on the North Slope where it is too cold for much snow to fall. Snowfall here averages about 25-30 inches annually.

Anchorage gets 70.6 inches of snowfall in an average year, and Juneau averages nearly 100 inches. But some of the highest totals occur along the south coast where precipitation is nearly constant in the winter.

January 2012 was one of the worst “snow” pile that Alaska can remember.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57358349/worst-alaska-winter-piles-on-more-snow/

27 foot snow fall

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2085892/Record-snowfall-Anchorage-Alaskan-communities-run-shovels-following-27ft-snowfall.html

 

Here’s some neat pictures:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_snow_does_Alaska_average#slideshow_catimages=callout_0.7

 

What's the summer weather like in Alaska?  From Alaska.com

The Southcentral climate (Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and the surrounding area) boasts relatively mild summers (highs near 70).

The Interior climate (Fairbanks and Denali) has warm summers (highs in the 90s).

The climate of the Inside Passage, where most of the cruise ships go, is usually warm and damp (summer highs in the 60s and 70s).

Coastal areas have more moderate temperatures than inland areas as well as more precipitation. Daily temperature fluctuations are wider inland.

In late spring and early summer (close to the solstice in mid-June), the days are the longest. Early summer has less rain than late summer and fall.

 

 

 

Have you booked your 2013 vacation yet ?  Based on cruise bookings and dates already sold out, looks like this "is" the year for traveling to Alaska !