It’s been an unseasonably snowy winter across Southeast Alaska, and Petersburg is no outlier. So far, this is Petersburg’s 4th snowiest winter on record, a record that has been kept since 1924.
Petersburg has received 169 inches of snowfall this season, which is double the average of 85 inches.
While that’s a lot of snow, Lance Chambers, a lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Juneau, said it’s not close to Petersburg’s snowiest winter. Petersburg would need to receive more than 50 additional inches to beat the record of 221 inches that fell during the winter of 1971-72.
“No chance this season!” Chambers said.
He said this winter was so snowy because of a combination of factors. Sustained cold weather and multiple atmospheric rivers brought lots of moisture to the region. Much of that weather happened back-to-back, with very few breaks.
March was exceptionally snowy. Chambers said Petersburg typically gets about 20 inches of snowfall in the month, but the town received 57.1 inches in March, nearly triple the average.
For those who are tired of shoveling their driveways, Chambers has good news: spring is on the way.
“April is climatologically our big warm up, and that’s already beginning,” he said. “We’re anticipating for that to continue through the month.”
Chambers said he expects to see little to no snow accumulation in Petersburg in the coming weeks.
