Perhaps. We had one big snowfall earlier when we got a couple feet of snow at one time, but much of the melted while we were out of state. It isn't unusual to get heavy snow here, but in normal years, it comes in February and March. Last year we got it early and we had almost eight feet of snow that settled down to 5 or 6. It was terrible on the wildlife and many moose starved in the area. Caribou losses among the young and newborn were up to 80% in some area so they cancelled all hunting in those areas. Last year was the first snowy winter we have had in a number of years, and perhaps this will be another. The predictions change daily, snow you never know what is correct. It is possible that the cold air coming from the north will push the storm to the south of us. We will wait and see as usual. Forecasting here is terrible.
That sucks for the caribou and for the hunters who thought they could count on laying up some meat in the freezer. There are no guarantees...
There are quite a few here who count on that meat, especially the natives but my sons count on it too. I just saw the latest forecast, and there is a winter storm watch for southeast of Anchorage with up to 40 inches of snow and 40 MPH winds. The forecaster said it would be hard to measure real snow depth with winds that high. Fortunately that is quite a bit south of us, so if he is right, we will be on the edge. My wife said she laughed as she was coming home this afternoon, as the guy on the radio was predicting light snow showers ending this afternoon as she was driving through a near whiteout and hardly able to see the road. It is now snowing pretty hard, so we will wait to see when it stops.
Very upsetting with regard to the animals and, thus, the people up there. I have never faced anything like your Alaska winters but it makes me wonder about preps. Does anyone really know if they are actually prepared enough? Hold on, you guys.
That is why "prepping" is a natural thing here, especially in the Bush. I don't know if anyone but @Bobby Cole has been in an Alaska Bush village, and I think he only spent the summer there. For a century, Alaskan villagers had to order their entire food supply at one time for delivery in the summer when the barges and ships could run. That was supplemented by what they could catch, grow, harvest or kill. We still have threats from volcanoes, earthquakes, blizzards, etc., all of which interrupt the flow of goods. I don't think anyone is "prepared enough" for everything, but you can do the best that is practical. The snowfall last night was only about 4 inches, but there is a blizzard that is supposed to arrive around noon today that will make driving anywhere tough.
I got my first dose of such things in of all places, Flagstaff, Arizona. During the winter months, the highway is almost impassable with snow and ice in the higher elevations getting to Flagstaff so everyone knows that they have to load up before the bad stuff hits. When the grocery stores are out of something, they’re out for an indefinite amount of time because they can’t depend on the deliveries. But yeah, my stay in Ekuk was from April 15 through Aug 13th but I had to depend on the last order from the year before to get things started for the workers and fishing boat crews. The funny part is that when the season was over, the superintendent allowed a couple of the fishing boat owners to put their boats in the freezer which was warmer than the outside temps during the winter. The captains of those boats would then pile a couple thousand pounds of food onto their boats so they could come to the plant and get food for their own tables during the winter months.
With a cold front moving in on the heels of all the rain we've had today, the last hour of the precip (at 2AM)is forecast to be snow flurries. Dunno if I'll be awake for it or not.
Moose kill far more people here than bears do. I had a dog that was stomped when I let him out the the door to do his business. He had no sooner cleared the porch steps than he was attacked an stomped by the moose. I was helpless and I thought he was surely dead, but he managed to stand after the moose backed of and recovered just fine. I think he was saved by the deep snow. Moose often attack dogs as they would a wolf, but I doubt the moose pictured mistook the chihuahua for a wolf.