The town of Pelican calls itself “closest to the Fish,” but today it’s also closest to the snow.
A yardstick will just about disappear in the drifts of the Chichagof Island town, which received 31.7 inches of snowfall from a storm that draped northern Southeast with a blanket of white on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I don’t think we’ve ever received this much steady snowfall,” said Pelican City Clerk Kelly Chapman, who on Thursday morning was looking from her windows at an expanse of unbroken snow.
The National Weather Service confirmed Chapman’s guess — this much snow has never before fallen on Pelican over a two-day stretch.
“The big winner was Pelican,” meteorologist David Levin said from his Juneau office.
On Tuesday, 16 inches of snow was recorded by observers — the No. 5 highest snowfall total in a single day. On Wednesday, 15.7 inches fell. That was the No. 6 highest snowfall total in a single day.
According to reports from a variety of sources, the heaviest band of snowfall stretched from east to west, roughly along Icy Strait. It enveloped Gustavus with 10.5 inches of snow and Hoonah with 9.6 inches.
It dropped 11 inches on downtown Juneau, 13.3 inches in the Mendenhall Valley, 15 at Lena Point and 22 inches (the city’s high mark) at the Shrine of St. Therese.
North and south of that band — which reached from the Gulf of Alaska to the Canadian border — snowfall totals were much lighter. Skagway only measured 1 inch of snow in town and 6 inches in White Pass. In the city of Sitka, little snow was reported, but some areas outside of town did measure a half-foot or so.
“It’s a pretty wide variation there,” Levin said.
Haines reported 9.1 inches in town and 17.8 inches at Mud Bay, but accumulations dropped off as they approached the Canadian border. The Haines Customs Station, usually one of the snowiest places in Southeast, measured only 2 inches of accumulation.
The two-day storm was the capital city’s biggest in about two years, but it was relatively average for Juneau in the long term; it set no records for daily or storm accumulation.
Furthermore, the snow was light and powdery, which meant tree branches weren’t endangered, and shoveling was easy.
At Eaglecrest Ski Area, officials reported about 8 inches of snow at the base of the mountain and more at the top. They were spending Thursday assessing snow conditions, clearing unstable areas and grooming slopes ahead of what is likely to be a busy weekend.
The Ptarmigan lift will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday for pass-holders, manager Matt Lillard said by phone. Whether it opens again will depend on how it withstands the demands of skiers.
“We’re still definitely on the low spectrum as far as snow goes,” he said.
Regardless, Eaglecrest will be on its normal winter schedule this weekend, Lillard said.
“The skiing is going to be fun tomorrow,” he added.
The forecast calls for sunny conditions and below-freezing temperatures to continue through next week. Juneauites who shoveled their sidewalks on Thursday may have to do it again, however — the forecast calls for high winds on Friday to create blowing drifts.
In Pelican, things are going well, Chapman said.
“It was stressful for the snow-removal crew, but everybody’s pretty patient and understanding,” she said.
The town of 79 winter residents didn’t lose power, and no boats sank in the harbor, Kelly said.
“We’re all doing good,” she said. “In remote locations like this, you’re used to no help. We’re tough.”
