They predicted “up to an inch” of snow in the Anchorage Bowl on Friday night.  Boy did they screw that one up.  We were beginning to think that Spring was right around the corner here in Anchorage.  It was in the 40s most of last week, and the sun was melting much of what was left on the ground.  Sure, we could expect it to roller coaster between warm and cold for another month or two, but with the ground starting to show the end was near.  With the “up to an inch”, we were ready for a little bit of wet roads this weekend, maybe wait to wash the car until next week.

Instead, we got hammered.  It started to come down around 5pm, then it started coming harder, and harder.  Our flurries became a near white out then became a blizzard.  It stopped somewhere around 1AM (yes I was up, I just got me a new kick-ass laptop, and Titanfall rocks!!).  It picked up again in the morning, and has snowed on and off since then.  It was all big fluffy flakes from the sky and had no problem sticking around as the storm continued.  In the end where I lived we nearly got a foot of snow.  A FOOT is not “up to an inch”!!!

So, I was all ready to yell and scream about it all, then I went to the National Weather Service website to see what the official count was, and that gave me something else to complain about.  The NWS measures snowfall using a high tech instrument called a “Snow Board” – which is a flat board placed in an open area that they let snow fall onto then they stick a ruler into it to see how deep it is.  Naturally, it only counts the snow where it falls in that one location.

In Anchorage, they put it at Sand Lake, next to their offices and near to the airport.  It’s in the western part of town and nearest to the confluence of the Turnagain Arm, Knik River Inlet, and the Cook Inlet — meaning on the seaside corner of the triangle that is Anchorage.  It is also the least snowiest part of town.  Most of it comes down the off the mountains where the air is colder and wetter.  By the time the clouds have dropped down the 2000 feet of altitude difference they have dumped what they can already.  This “less than an inch” storm couldn’t be more proof of that.

Sand Lake measured the official snow fall as 6.6 inches.  Less than 2 miles east where I live, the unofficial measurement was 11 inches, and that matched similarly eastern parts of town like Midtown and Downtown.  Oceanside, which is near the Turnagain arm and the mountains got 16 inches.  Glen Alps, the housing area that is 2500 feet above the rest of city and known to have the harshest weather in town, measured 23 inches — nearly 2 feet!

Still, the stupid NWS in the effort to keep things “Consistent” only gave us credit for 6.6 inches.

I think NWS needs to come shove Auggie’s Poop Path the extra 6.6 inches deep so he can go do his business.