Cold April close to record in South Central

With spring weather slow to arrive in the Northern Susitna Valley, it should come as no surprise that the National Weather Service has announced April, 2013 as the 4th coldest on record for Talkeetna and surrounding areas.

For much of the state, April 2013 was among the coldest in the past 74 years. Looking back even further, in the eastern Interior this was the coldest April since 1924, while in South Central for many places this was the coolest April since 1985.

May arrived and most of Alaska’s rivers are still locked in ice. National Weather Service staff and river observers collect ice thickness data around the 1st day of each month during the winter. However, except on the North Slope and northwest Alaska, by the start of May ice is typically gone or unsafe for measurements. Not so this remarkably backwards spring. Ice thickness and snow on the ice at nearly all measured locations in the central Interior was THICKER than at the start of April.