The coldest state of the United States, Alaska, has experienced bouts of record-breaking high and low temperatures in the past week until now. But the far northern US state is more concerned about the unprecedented winter storms that have been devastating residents.
The state transportation department has reported an "Icemageddon" event as huge sheets of ice have started blocking roads and created choking traffics in the city of Fairbanks, the second-largest city in the state. The term describes a chilly impasse, which was coined to take inspiration from a play in Armageddon.
A tractor plows snow near a US Coast Guard vessel (L) in the nation's snowiest town, averaging over 300 inches of snow each year, on April 2, 2004, in Valdez, Alaska.
Extreme Weather in Alaska Prompts "Icemageddon" Warning
The Alaskan transportation department tweeted on December 30 that the state is experiencing record-breaking winter storms. That is opposite to what the island of Kodiak has experienced on Christmas Day as BBC News reported temperatures soared to 67 degrees Fahrenheit (19.4 degrees Celsius).
However, most parts of the state have reported plummeting temperatures on record lows. For instance, the southeastern town of Ketchikan reported temperatures dropping to -0.4 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius) on December 25. It was considered one of the town's coldest Christmas Days in the past 100 years.
Due to extreme weather in the state prompted "icemageddon" warnings from authorities as ice that are as hard as cement coats the roads. Unfortunately, these huge sheets of ice have made roads treacherous for drivers.
Moreover, the recent winter is moister compared to previous winter seasons because of the warm air coming from Hawaii. But this also means heavy rain and more snowstorms in the interior regions of the state.
Climate Scientist Rick Thoman from the state's Center for Climate Assessment told the BBC News that the ice would likely cling to the roads until March or April. Temperatures in Fairbanks are also estimated to drop to below -20 degrees Fahrenheit (-29 degrees Celsius) this weekend. But Thomman added that warm, soggy episodes are likely to become common in the future.
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Climate Change Could Have Caused the "Icemageddon" in Alaska
Scientists blame the unusual weather in Alaska on the unchecked burning of fossils and other human activity that adversely affects the climate and make it more unpredictable, Science Alert reported. Thoman called the recent weather conditions very "unusual" after temperatures had reached record-breaking levels.
Furthermore, they pointed out that the rainstorm which led to the unseen level of downpour in decades within the state's interior is due to the same weather system that brought the high temperatures, transporting warm ad moist air from Hawaii to the frigid far northern US state.
Thomman said this weather event is already expected as climate change worsens every year. Even the sunny state of California has been experiencing persistent rain that caused localized flooding and forced residents to evacuate. Now, more than five meters of snow has covered the Sierra Nevada mountain range, which is the highest that the University of California-Berkeley's Central Sierra Nevada Snow Laboratory has ever recorded.
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