74.5 inches of snow? Multiple weather records smashed at one Alaska national park

The treacherous weather being reported across the nation may pale in comparison to what’s happening at one Alaska national park, where just over 6 feet of snow fell in December.

Denali National Park got an average of 2.5 inches a day — for 29 days, the National Park Service says.

That’s a lot, even by Alaska’s hefty standards.

Just over 74 inches of snow fell at the park Dec. 1-29, “making this the snowiest December on record.” Most of it (54.8 inches) came Dec. 23-29, the park said.

“Sixty inches (five feet) of snow were on the ground on December 29th, which sets a new record for highest snow depth,” the park wrote Dec. 31 on Facebook.

Denali began keeping weather records in 1923, officials said. The park is about 240 miles north of Anchorage.

Among the unexpected consequences of the heavy snow is stressed wildlife, including moose, which are more apt to charge at people, the park says. Photos shared by the park show the large animals are using freshly cleared roads and parking lots as a place to take a break from the snow.

“The heavy snow that fell in these storms also contained more water than usual, so we’ve smashed some precipitation records too!” park officials said.

“Precipitation measurements include rain and melted snow, in order to measure the total water that falls year-round as either rain or snow.”

• “5.75 inches of precipitation fell during the four-day period of Dec. 26-29, making this the wettest four-day period on record.”
• 8.33 inches of precipitation fell Dec. 1-29, “making this the wettest December on record and the second wettest month on record after August 2019.”

The extreme weather at Denali National Park also included winds of 60 mph and wind chills as low as minus-60 degrees. The park covers six million acres of wilderness “culminating in North America’s tallest peak, 20,310 (foot) Denali.”

This story was originally published January 3, 2022 at 7:31 AM with the headline "74.5 inches of snow? Multiple weather records smashed at one Alaska national park."