Is there a statistically significant September precip increase in all interior stations? How big is that? It seems like recent pre-ground-freeze-up rains are saturating the surface layers (garden soil or dirt roads) circa September.
There is an trend for increasing in September precipitation from Fairbanks east into the uplands but overall only weak upward trends at the 50-year scale over most of the Interior.
That's an interesting perspective. Seems like general guidance is to leave potatoes and carrots in the ground until after first freeze, but with saturated soils freezing around the veggies, that doesn't sound like such a good thing (a few years ago I had to take a pick-axe to get my parsnips out of the garden in late September because I was out of country since mid August).
And, what about the dirt roads? It seems like having saturated roads freeze up only makes breakup worse in the spring.
I'm just speculating here, but it seems like some interesting impacts...
I find myself curious about the October-through-Christmas snow patterns, especially in Fairbanks. It "seems" (i.e. purely subjective, anecdotal) to me like the snow we get in that period has been warmer/wetter (and sometimes ice rather than snow). It "seems" like in older days, you could get a good snowfall in early October and that was it for 6-7 months. Good, solid snowpack coupled with low daytime sun made for a winter wonderland. It "seems" like in more recent years I'm struggling more frequently with clearing heavy wet snow (or "mashed potato snow" as Eric Stevens used to call it) that sort of bonds with the yet-to-be-frozen gravel driveway, making for a royal mess. Seems like this happens even in early December in recent years. And, of course, who can forget the miserable wet snow / rain dump of Christmas 2021. It "seems" like the good kind of winter may not really settle in until after the solstice.
Yeah, the snowy October of the 1990s were glorious. And of course our "guaranteed" white Halloween (only one with less than 1 inch snow depth 1941-2015) is no more, with five of the eight Halloweens since 2016 having only a trace of snow on the ground.
Is there a statistically significant September precip increase in all interior stations? How big is that? It seems like recent pre-ground-freeze-up rains are saturating the surface layers (garden soil or dirt roads) circa September.
There is an trend for increasing in September precipitation from Fairbanks east into the uplands but overall only weak upward trends at the 50-year scale over most of the Interior.
That's an interesting perspective. Seems like general guidance is to leave potatoes and carrots in the ground until after first freeze, but with saturated soils freezing around the veggies, that doesn't sound like such a good thing (a few years ago I had to take a pick-axe to get my parsnips out of the garden in late September because I was out of country since mid August).
And, what about the dirt roads? It seems like having saturated roads freeze up only makes breakup worse in the spring.
I'm just speculating here, but it seems like some interesting impacts...
Very interesting.
I find myself curious about the October-through-Christmas snow patterns, especially in Fairbanks. It "seems" (i.e. purely subjective, anecdotal) to me like the snow we get in that period has been warmer/wetter (and sometimes ice rather than snow). It "seems" like in older days, you could get a good snowfall in early October and that was it for 6-7 months. Good, solid snowpack coupled with low daytime sun made for a winter wonderland. It "seems" like in more recent years I'm struggling more frequently with clearing heavy wet snow (or "mashed potato snow" as Eric Stevens used to call it) that sort of bonds with the yet-to-be-frozen gravel driveway, making for a royal mess. Seems like this happens even in early December in recent years. And, of course, who can forget the miserable wet snow / rain dump of Christmas 2021. It "seems" like the good kind of winter may not really settle in until after the solstice.
Yeah, the snowy October of the 1990s were glorious. And of course our "guaranteed" white Halloween (only one with less than 1 inch snow depth 1941-2015) is no more, with five of the eight Halloweens since 2016 having only a trace of snow on the ground.