Three state snowplows in Juneau’s fleet now have the names Berminator, Salt-O-Saurus Rex and Ka-PLOW after a naming contest that got more than 400 entries, state transportation officials announced Monday.
But it doesn’t look like they’ll get much of a chance to introduce themselves to the community during Christmas week as unseasonably warm temperatures, rain and wind are forecast at least until Friday, according to the National Weather Service Juneau.
The Name-a-Snowplow Contest for the trio of Juneau snowplows held by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities was similar to the department’s first-ever naming contest a year ago that resulted in an Anchorage plow being named Darth Blader.
The rules for this year’s contest — which the department hopes to make an annual event — stated names could be a maximum of 30 characters, and non-profane and non-political. Eli Kesten-Brackett, a DOT spokesperson, said Monday the names of the people submitting the winning entries aren’t being revealed because multiple people submitted the same or similar names for the machines.
“We didn’t want to feel that anyone was left out,” he said. “So I think we were just not going to announce who the specific winners were. The winners are the names themselves.”
The state’s plows are used on many of Juneau’s main roads such as Egan Drive and Glacier Highway, while the City and Borough of Juneau has 13 snowplows it uses for about 250 miles of city streets.
However, Juneau’s road system was clear of snow Monday morning and likely to remain that way most or all of the coming week, according to the weather service. The forecast as of 5:30 a.m. Monday calls for rain and highs of about 40, with temperatures not dropping below the mid-30s, until Friday, and mixed rain and snow through Sunday with highs in the mid-30s and lows between 25 and 30 degrees.
“For this week probably up at Eaglecrest or mountaintop level is really the only place that you’ll be able to see snow sticking around,” said Sean Jones, a NWS Juneau meteorologist.
Record-high temperatures have been set in four Southeast Alaska communities outside Juneau in recent days as part of an unusually warm period of weather for this time of year, he said.
Eaglecrest has been open since Dec. 7, but with just the Porcupine lift and beginning trails at the base. Craig Cimmons, the ski area’s general manager, stated in a text message Monday morning it doesn’t appear more of the mountain will open in the coming days.
“It’s been warm and raining so we have the snow we have, and will open more terrain with the next snowfall or round of cold-weather snowmaking,” he wrote.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
