Alaskans experienced a relatively balmy Christmas holiday, with temperatures reaching historic highs of 67 degrees Fahrenheit on Kodiak island and interior areas getting soaked under a deluge of rain when the region typically gets inches of snow, the Guardian reports.
Temperatures around the state have been running about 10 degrees above normal, with the normally dry December weather changed to rain, threatening towns like Unalaska with flooding. Fairbanks has been hit by a storm unseen since 1937, which dumped inches of snow on the ground followed by a rainstorm, which iced over roads, roofs and fields.
“Ice is extremely difficult to remove once it has binded to the road surface. Even though air temps were warm during ‘icemageddon2021’, roads were at sub-zero temps, which caused ice to bind to the surface,” the state Department of Transportation said on Twitter.