We had some nice and relatively early snow, around a foot on the ground. This was from late October through mid-November. Then, November 21 saw a major warm-up and rain. Huh, rain? It’s highly unusual, with the National Weather Service calling it an “epoch” event.
So it rained. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday November 22-24. UAF was closed. Everything was closed, and streets were sheets of ice. Finally, Wednesday night brought cooler temps and the rain turned to snow. Today, Friday, temps are closer to normal (around +20 daytime, headed for 0 or -5 nighttime), and we’ve had another couple inches of snow.
The rain and above freezing temps (though only 33-35 degrees) did a lot of damage to our nice snow. Bare spots, compacted snow, and ice sheets. But the new snow will alleviate it somewhat. I’ll test the trails again tonight.