100 Degree Temp Jump Causes AK Problems
UPDATE: Chris Burt [JessePedia], Author of "Extreme Weather" says that Fairbanks went to 52 degrees, and it was the second warmest January temperature ever recorded there. What a swing!
One place you rarely see photos of mass traffic accidents is Alaska. This is probably a combination of lack of attention from the media and the fact that people up there REALLY know how to drive in the snow without problems, because the roads are snow-covered in much of the state for much of the year (I assume, locals correct me if I'm wrong).
But after yesterday's warm-up, which accounted to 100 degrees in some places after last week's dip into the -60's, they had a problem they usually don't: Snow melt. And refreeze.
From the captions, it sounds like there was freezing rain as well, something else that is uncommon up there because they rarely have warm air at low levels of the atmosphere. All told, it created a lot of accidents near Anchorage -- see pic and video below.
An Anchorage police officer checks on the driver in a car (red in back) that slid into a snowbank on the Glenn Highway near Anchorage, Alaska in an area where three other cars went off of the road on Wednesday Jan. 14, 2009. Freezing rain caused treacherous driving conditions closing schools and universities. The Anchorage police reported 46 accidents between midnight and 8 a.m. Eight of those involved injuries with another 100 cars in the ditch. (AP Photo/ Al Grillo) VIDEO CAPTION: JUST DAYS AFTER PLUNGING ALASKA INTO THE DEEP FREEZE... MOTHER NATURE HAS ANOTHER SURPRISE FOR RESIDENTS IN SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA... TEMPERATURES IN THE 30'S AND 40'S... AND TREACHEROUS FREEZING RAIN. THOSE CONDITIONS SENT MOTORISTS INTO THE DITCH... KEPT KIDS HOME FROM SCHOOL ... AND KEPT UTILITY CREWS EXTREMELY BUSY. THESE WARMER CONDITIONS MADE THESE ROADS LOOK LIKE ICE CAPADES. AND WE'RE TALKING *HUNDREDS* OF VEHICLES SKATING OFF OF THEM IN THE ANCHORAGE BOWL. WHERE VEHICLES...LIKE THIS...UNCONTROLLABLY SKIDDING INTO SNOW BERMS ALL DAY. ICE COVERED ROADS EVEN CREATED A NUMBER OF ROAD CLOSURES....ESPECIALLY ON THE HILLSIDE AND EAGLE RIVER ....INCLUDING THE GLEN HIGH WAY EARLIER THIS MORNING. A-P-D HAS BEEN BUSY NON STOP...SINCE MIDNIGHT...RESPONDING CLOSE TO 180 VEHICLES IN THE DITCH....80 NON INJURY RELATED ACCIDENTS AND ABOUT A DOZEN INJURY RELATED. A-P-D STRESSED TO TAKE IT SLOW ON THE ROAD AND KEEP A GOOD DISTANCE FROM OTHER VEHICLES.
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