The record amount of snow in Anchorage this season hasn't been without some consequences.
According to the Associated Press, city snow removal crews have worked around the clock to clear roadways and haul more than 2.5 million cubic yards of snow to the city's six snow disposal sites, which are close to capacity. Maintenance and operations director Alan Czajkowski says that volume would almost fill the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.
That's not even counting the loads disposed of by state crews.
At the height of the snow overload, many residential streets were rimmed by snow-walled canyons that towered over fences and shielded homes. Some roofs collapsed, mostly on older commercial buildings with flat roofs.
The collapses caught the attention of many residents worried the same thing would happen to their roofs, a concern that turned into booming business for commercial snow removal outfits.
Check out this amazing 360-degree view of an Alaska snow dump in February 2012. Keep in mind this huge pile is nothing but snow.
If you think Anchorage's snow total is impressive, it's nothing compared to the typically much snowier town of Valdez, where 437.2 inches has piled up this season! That's around 36 feet. Believe it or not, this is well below the all-time record of 550.7 inches set in the 1989-1990 season.
The huge amounts of snow in Alaska this winter are in stark contrast to the rest of the United States, where it was relatively mild and snowless. Minneapolis, Minn. and Syracuse, N.Y. saw just 42 percent of their average seasonal snowfall. Boston, Mass. was just 22 percent of average!
http://www.weather.com/outlook/weather-news/news/articles/anchorage-record-snow-season_2012-04-08
