Comments on: Alaskan town has 176 inches of snow on the ground

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:53:00 +0000

If your roof is narrow enough, heavy snowfall will turn it into a peaked roof. But the structure has to be sturdy enough to support the weight of a triangular accumulation of ice, or you’re really depending on luck for your home’s survival.

That being said, I suspect any trailer that was built sturdy enough to be towed on the highway is probably both sturdy enough and narrow enough to be pretty safe in heavy snow. The fact that you’re in Anchorage and your trailer hasn’t been squashed flat is anecdotal evidence that I might be right… stay warm up there!

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000

Wow, that’s even steeper than mine. And one of my base criteria for housing is a steep, simple roof!

As for why it didn’t stick around, I blame the Bauhaus… form before function.

By: sean

sean — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:17:00 +0000

Well, it IS Alaska! I thought there was 176 inches of snow on everything all the time, anyway. But I can’t see any polar bears or eskimos in the picture. Are you sure that is not a house in Russia?

By: Sean Southern

Sean Southern — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 07:26:00 +0000

I live in Anchorage and my home is actually a trailer that has been built around extensively. We have a flat roof and I think it’s because at the time the trailer was added on to it was just the cheapest option. It works and we’ve had no problem with it for two decades, although every few years the tar needs to be touched up. I know a few other “houses” in my neighborhood are the same. I think our place dates back to the oil boom in the seventies.

By: Festus

Festus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:07:00 +0000

Actually Cordova is usually rain country. This is wacky!

By: Festus

Festus — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 03:06:00 +0000

On the plus side, that Homeland is extremely Secure. Snug, too.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:20:00 +0000

True, but under a few feet of snow you easily can. It’s not avalanche compacted snow we’re talking about.
Try it to know, I have.

By: digi_owl

digi_owl — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:12:00 +0000

Ah, snow: http://gunnarblondal.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Norway/G0000YA1sZxjhNWA/I0000n63wW60QbDo

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 01:23:00 +0000

Doesn’t much matter what it weighs if you can’t move or breathe.

By: Ipo

Ipo — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:47:00 +0000

Because of the great weight of snow?
Been in collapsing snow tunnels. Uncrushed.
A few cubic yards of snow weigh several pounds.

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:16:00 +0000

That was my first thought, as well. Why didn’t this design stick around longer?

By: Antinous / Moderator

Antinous / Moderator — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:42:00 +0000

The only way to get fuel is to airlift it in and get it past a blocked road.

By: Ito Kagehisa

Ito Kagehisa — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:06:00 +0000

I’m always astounded when I see a building with a low-angle or flat roof in snow country.

Of course flat roofs are always a bad idea in any circumstance, but any roof you have to shovel is just stupid.

By: MrsBug

MrsBug — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 21:21:00 +0000

Blowers can't go up on buildings. Wellll.... ;D

By: Jerril

Jerril — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:50:00 +0000

The usual trick is steep slopes combined with extending your water dam coverage further up the roof – heck remembering to include the water dam coverage at all. It’s a sort of rubber sheet that goes down along the edge of the roof – 3′ back here according to code, although my mother got her roof done to 6′ due to the cruddy shallow slope.

By: Jerril

Jerril — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:49:00 +0000

Blowers can’t go up on buildings. They need the shovelers to go up on every building and clear the 98 inches of snow before the roofs cave in from the sheer weight – a real and serious threat. Listened to an interview with a town official last night on Canadian radio.

By: Jerril

Jerril — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:46:00 +0000

It definitely happens for real. What also happens is kids playing in their snow tunnels getting crushed to death when the tunnel collapses – kids being not particularly good at reinforcing tunnels and all. We hear of a serious injury or death from one or the other every few years here – city of 1.1 million, lots of snow.

By: Jerril

Jerril — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:44:00 +0000

My guess around 4:00 to 4:10 – late dusk in a snowy climate at high latitude. The light refracts from the clouded sky and from the snow on the ground and produces that sort of dramatic blue ambient light, with shadows reduced to almost nothing.

At my latitude at this time of year that’s around 4:45 but they’re further North than us, so they’re having sunset about 40 minutes earlier.

By: Jeremy LaGant

Jeremy LaGant — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:32:00 +0000

Southwest of Anchorage? I could have sworn it was southeast.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cordova,+Alaska&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x56b718e63d44593f:0x213f8e3cd7b8dc42,Cordova,+AK&gl=us&ei=65MQT5mbJYyHsAK07tzIAw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=image&resnum=10&ved=0CHMQ8gEwCQ

By: IronEdithKidd

IronEdithKidd — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:11:00 +0000

Nope. You don’t get to make that claim until you call 6″ at a time a nuisance. Or you start to like the sound snow makes at -20 ° F.

Don’t worry, you’re definitely getting there!

By: arkle

arkle — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0000

What kringlebertfistyebuns and Maggie said.
And again again, irregular and extreme weather patterns–including shorter, more concentrated bursts of precipitation in local areas–are actually part of the prognosis, according to lots of climatological research and modeling .

Predicting timing, severity, and exact location is well beyond any conceivable climate model (that’s local weather forecasting, which is a different thing) but the trend we’re seeing lines up with the worry: that adding lots of solar energy (which is what greenhouse gases do) is pushing the climate system out of its present equilibrium and causing it to get, well, weird.

Best predictions: hotter on average, colder sometimes in some places, and generally less predictable and more extreme. Not a laughing MATTE!!!!!, for polar bears or for humans.

By: Jason Sewell

Jason Sewell — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:55:00 +0000

That picture combined with the reports of the temperature hovering around freezing makes me thing that ice damns are forming on the over-hangs of that roof. This can cause water to back up underneath roof shingles and flood the interior of the house. Are houses in Alaska built with some kind of protection against roof ice damns?

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:49:00 +0000

I don’t count those dustings, either. I would have, as a Kansan. The fact that I don’t tells me that I’m Minnesotan now.

By: Maggie Koerth-Baker

Maggie Koerth-Baker — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:47:00 +0000

What kringlebertfistyebuns said.

Also, again, local weather tells you nothing about ongoing global climate change.

By: Alex Schneider

Alex Schneider — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:44:00 +0000

dontcha snow

By: optuser

optuser — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Hope the AK National Guard has some serious masotherapy contractors on hand to deal with the back breaking work the troops are doing. Shovels? Nobody has blower equipped Bobcats, Polaris ATV’s… something? How about those muscle augmenting suits they were making for nurses to strap on to help lift patients out of bed? I like shoveling snow but DAYYY-em.

By: Bill Bean

Bill Bean — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:10:00 +0000

No more complaining from me.

By: Ultan

Ultan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:46:00 +0000

The Anchorage Daily News reports that some small Naitive American villages have just about run out of heating fuel, with no transport in and temperatures too cold to gather wood. "People called each other on the VHF radio asking if anyone has fuel to sell or share, said Noatak resident Hilda Booth. 'My husband and I are using our fish rack woods to heat up our home because it's so cold to go out and get wood.'"

By: Ultan

Ultan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Reminds me of the enormous snow piles around my school in Grand Rapids, Michigan after the blizzard of ’78. During recess we first graders would honeycomb them with tunnels, and it was great fun for the two or three weeks before the grownups decided it was “dangerous”. I was more concerned about getting hit in the head with over-packed snowballs. And, of course, the long trudge through the woods on the way to school, and whether that apparent extra set of crunchy footstep sounds behind me was an echo, my imagination….
or as I suspected, a little-kid eating abominable snowman stalking its next meal.

By: kringlebertfistyebuns

kringlebertfistyebuns — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:22:00 +0000

The nearest NWS station to Cordova I can find currently has 98″ of snow depth. That’s…plenty.