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Late-season snowfall records fall in far corners of US as winter makes last gasp

By Brian Lada, AccuWeather meteorologist and staff writer
April 25, 2019, 8:23:20 AM EDT


Spring is in full swing across most, but not all of, the United States as April begins its final week. Wintry weather has been lingering over some remote corners of the country.

Old Man Winter paid a long visit to Caribou, Maine, this year, with the town measuring at least one inch of snow on the ground for 163 consecutive days, starting on Nov. 10, 2018 and ending on April 21, 2019. This is the longest streak of its kind on record, burying the previous record of 155 days set from 2002 to 2003, according to the National Weather Service.

This unusually long stretch of snowy conditions kicked off during a stormy November when the town measured nearly 30 inches of snow. Two months later, Caribou saw its snowiest January on record when 59.8 inches fell, including a snowstorm that unloaded over 16 inches in one day.

Screen Shot 2019-04-24 at 3.36.17 PM.png

National Weather Service officials in Caribou, Maine, posted this photo on social media showing the last of this season's immense snowfall finally melting off after the town measured at least one inch of snow for a record 163 consecutive days. (Twitter / NWS)


Even after the calendar flipped over to April, the snow kept falling. Nearly a foot of fresh powder was measured in Caribou between April 1 and April 24.

Since the start of November, Caribou has seen 161.2 inches of snow, well above the average of 105.7 inches, but still off the record of 197 inches.

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The never ending winter

Neighboring states have also seen impressive snow totals in recent months.

This past winter brought one of the top five deepest snowpacks on record to Mount Mansfield, the tallest mountain in Vermont. However, the near-record snow depth has rapidly declined over the past week amid mild and sunny weather.

Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeastern U.S., is also digging out from the snowy winter with feet of snow likely remaining on the mountain until the summer months.


New England is not the only part of the country setting late-season snowfall records. Some 3,000 miles away in Anchorage, Alaska, a snowfall record that has stood for more than half a century was toppled on Tuesday.

Alaska’s most populated city was blanketed in measurable snow for the seventh day in a row, the latest stretch of snowy days in the city’s history. Prior to this week's snow streak, Anchorage hadn't seen measurable snow on a comparable stretch of consecutive days since March 31 to April 8, 1956, the National Weather Service said in a post on Twitter, which included by some video of snowflakes falling.

Some spots in an around Anchorage saw varying amounts of snow during the streak but one locale, Upper Hillside, reported 28 inches of new snow during the time period. The late-April snow made the Anchorage area look like a winter wonderland as KTVA chief meteorologist Melissa Frey posted a slow-motion video of the wintry scene on Twitter.


This snow record comes right on the heals of the warmest March in Alaska’s history when temperatures across much of the state averaged 10 to 20 degrees F above normal.

Even with the start of May just a few days away, there is the chance for additional snow before the last signs of winter finally fade. A developing storm system will bring the chance of snow to the northern U.S. late this week and into the weekend.

"It is possible that enough snow falls to cover non-paved surfaces and perhaps even make some roads and sidewalks slushy and slippery from parts of the Dakotas, to portions of southern and central Minnesota, central Wisconsin and parts of central and northern Michigan," according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Courtney Travis.

Next week may also bring another chance for snow across parts of the northern U.S., potentially adding to the seasonal snowfall total in Caribou.

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