Juneau sets new December snowfall record; winter storm warning extended until noon Wednesday
- Mark Sabbatini
- 21 hours ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
More than a foot of additional snow possible during final two days of 2025; city offices closed, limited operations elsewhere expected Tuesday
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
This story has been updated with additional information.
Juneau easily set a new snowfall record for December on Monday — and plenty more is expected during the final two days of the year as a winter storm warning has been extended until noon on Wednesday.
A total of 63.4 inches has fallen in December at Juneau International Airport as of midnight Tuesday (one minute past 11:59 p.m. Monday), topping the previous record of 54.7 inches set in 1964. The airport received 11.2 inches of snow Monday, falling short of the daily record of 12.4 inches set in 1963, after record-setting amount were set Saturday, Sunday and two other dates earlier this month.
As on Monday, numerous closures and limited opertions are occurring Tuesday.
City and state offices were scheduled to open at noon, but as of 11:50 a.m., the City and Borough of Juneau announced a full-day closure due to ongoing hazardous road conditions. The state also changed its status, closing all State of Alaska executive branches in Juneau on Tuesday.
Bartlett Regional Hospital will not be offering non-emergency services, while SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) clinics and services (including Urgent Care) are scheduled to open at 10 a.m. The offices at the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, as well as Goldbelt Inc. and Sealaska Corp., will be closed. Resurrection Lutheran Church is not offering its weekly food pantry.
Eaglecrest Ski Area is scheduled to be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., although the water main to the resort is still not repaired, so no food/drink or indoor plumbing is available.
Setting a new monthly record at some point on Monday seemed likely since the airport was 2.5 inches shy of it when the day began. Edward Liske, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Juneau, said that as of about 7 p.m. Sunday "we’ve had 7.2 additional inches since midnight" at the station near the Mendenhall Glacier.
"So I'm pretty sure we probably beat that record," he said.
A winter storm warning that’s been in effect since 3 a.m. Saturday and extended multiple times was extended yet again — until noon Wednesday instead of 6 a.m. Tuesday — with more than a foot of additional snow possible during the next two days, Liske said.
"The low in the Gulf is continuing to send a few waves of moisture into the Panhandle, into the northern inner channel," he said. "Specifically, we’ve got one wave that's coming up late tonight that will probably drop another five to seven or eight inches on the area. The precipitation will diminish a little bit into Tuesday and then we’ve got another wave coming up for Tuesday night. It's going to drop another six or seven inches of snow. And then finally we'll have a diminishing trend into Wednesday."
Up to four feet of snow has fallen in Juneau as of Monday evening, with the heaviest accumulations generally north of Auke Bay out the road. Warmer temperatures downtown have resulted in alternating periods of heavy snow and freezing rain.
The snowpack has resulted in widespread closures of public offices and facilities — including city and state operations Monday — as well as businesses. It’s also caused numerous disruptions to local road travel as well as to wider air and vessel travel in Southeast Alaska, including smaller communities that have gone weeks without any flights. The Hubbard and Kennicott state ferries both abandoned planned sailings from Juneau on Monday.
Numerous advisories are also being issued by official agencies:
• The City and Borough of Juneau is asking residents "to help keep the roads safe and support emergency services by clearing snow from nearby fire hydrants and storm drains in your neighborhood."
• Multiple vessels and boat shelters are beginning to sink under the weight of snow, and "conditions are expected to worsen as accumulation continues," according to Juneau’s harbors department.
• Snow covering heater exhaust vents can pose a fatal carbon monoxide kills, and "it can build up inside your house if your heater vents become blocked. Please make sure you check your outside heater exhaust vents for snow blockages and make sure your carbon monoxide alarms have fresh batteries," according to the Skagway Police Department.
• People are advised to avoid driving except for urgent circumstances
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
