As a lot of people do, I enjoy watching the myriad of shows on TV that tell some story about folks in Alaska. “Life Below Zero,” “The Edge of Alaska,” “The Last Alaskan,” “Living Alaska,” “Gold Rush,” “Building Alaska” and the “Alaskan Railroad” are a few. Yep, there are more and they all have a similar theme: It is tough to live in the 49th state.
I’m sure that’s true, but it’s not a bed of roses living in Michigan either.
One of the items always discussed on the Alaskan shows is either “it is winter” or “winter is just around the corner” and if you aren’t preparing for it, you may be in dire straits. Well, let’s just take a look at the supposed winter Alaska has. If you look at southern Alaska, Anchorage averages 74 inches of snow a year. Not 740, but 74. In comparison, Detroit averages 43 inches of snow a year. Considering how much farther north Anchorage is located, that isn’t much of a difference.
If you look near the middle of the state of Alaska you will find the city of Fairbanks. This city is the lifeblood community for many of the programs as it is a larger community with more amenities. The average snowfall in Fairbanks is 65 inches, not even twice that of Detroit. Let’s look at one of our middle of the state cities, Gaylord. Gaylord averages 149 inches of snow a year. This is more than twice that of Fairbanks that is almost always portrayed as the last piece of civilization in Alaska. It’s no wonder, with only 65 inches of snow a year. Do they ever get to ski?
In all fairness, there is a lot of country north of Fairbanks, so they must get snow, right? Sorry, not so much. Nome, Alaska always thought of as close to Santa as you will ever get, has an average annual snowfall of 76 inches of snow. With only 76 inches of snow, it‘s no wonder I have been seeing Santa in those Mercedes Benz commercials, or maybe he ought to just put wheels on his sleigh. In comparison, one of our most northern cities, Houghton, located in the U.P.’s Keweenaw County, receives an average annual snowfall of 207 inches. Even my hometown of Bessemer’s average snowfall is 188 inches. I guess that explains putting your snowsuit on before Halloween and taking it off just before the Fourth of July parade.
How about the record snowfall in Michigan? It was the winter of 1978-1979. The City of Houghton holds the record at 355.90 inches of snow. That is just less than 30 feet of snow. That’s enough to bury a 3-story building. I didn’t have to look that up. I was attending Michigan Tech as a sophomore that year. Besides the long winter months, at the heart of the season, it snowed 65 days in a row. I lived right across from campus that year and there were days when you couldn’t see across the road. Of course, classes were never cancelled and I didn’t hear anyone complaining except maybe for some students from Alaska (kidding). To most folks, it was just the way it was and it didn’t help to complain.
I guess I bring this up because of the drama that seems to always surround the narrators of these various Alaskan shows and how one wrong step could be a disaster for the cast of the show. In reality, one wrong step anywhere could be disaster, not just in Alaska. But who knows, maybe they will get some real snowfalls someday like we do in Michigan
And that’s the situation as I survey it …
After a 35-year career downstate amongst da trolls, during which he built a successful engineering and surveying business, John Matonich is back home in da U.P. His column will appear here occasionally, don’tcha know. His book “Surveyin’ Da Situation” is available on Amazon.com.
Image credit: Mélanie Plante
What a wonderful reading for today when I’m staying in and contemplating the snow we’ve been promised to dump on us. It was interesting to study those facts about snowfall in inches!
My complaint about the snow is that it most often comes at just the time you have plans to get a lot of errands done and it sure can slow you down.
Thanks again.
Hi Ann,
Glad you liked my rambling. I agree there rarely is there a good time to get a snow dump…maybe Christmas Eve about 10 pm 🙂 ….
I totally agree! The big snow fall always hits us when you have tons of stuff to get done!
Yes … it sure does
Wow, those totals for Alaska surprised me! I always thought they got more snow than we did! Learn something new every day!
Michigan is always overlooked when it comes to weather because we rarely cry about it
My ex hubby was in the Army stationed in Sault Ste Marie late ’50s. In town streets were plowed but snow was piled up curbside. To get to businesses he had pictures of town businesses where tunnels were carved thru the snow piles to create an entrance. Yoopers know snow!
Yes … we yoopers do know snow ….??
The issue is not the snow, it is the isolation and difficulty in traveling. If there is any kind of emergency there is usually no easy way to get help to a person, even when there is no snow at all. Most of the towns, other than Anchorage, even those that you have heard of, are little more than truck stops and many do not have roads in our out. Add to that the sheer vastness-towns are hundred of miles apart- and the bitter cold in the winter and you see that there is no comparison to Michigan.
Sounds like the UP to me… it is a one hour round trip for me just to get milk.. let’s. It even talk about health care…
Sounds a lot like the UP to me…Lots of air lifts to hospitals here as well and while there are roads, they aren’t always passable. Our high today will be -2 🙂
Haha! I’ve lived in Alaska and in Michigan. There is no comparison. None.
Alaska has the area of over half of the United States. If you cut it in half, Texas would be the third largest state.
Area Michigan UP: 16452 square miles
Population 30700+ people
Area Alaska: 663300 Square miles
Population: 727625 with almost 40000 living in Anchorage
I know a guy from Alaska, met him once but we keep in touch via the net. His wife is from Grosse Pointe, MI. They do only have two seasons in much of Alaska, winter and summer. I was aware it doesn’t snow all that much but it gets cold for half the year, it is difficult to get around as there are few roads. In many cases the rivers are the highways, problem is you have to travel by boat half the year then wait for the river to freeze. There is no travel during ice break up or when it’s not quite frozen enough to support your weight. They do regular deliveries via hovercraft on some rivers.
It’s like Hawaii, many people tend to think tropical is hot but its about 75 to 80 degrees, only extremes are on top of the volcanos where it snows.
How about a temperature comparison? While I know it gets VERY cold up in Alaska, the coldest I have ever seen was in north central Maine–54 degrees below zero. (Yes, boiling water thrown up in the air does freeze before it hits the ground.)
Well considering it is 30 below here in the UP and has been for several days… I don’t think Alaska has a lot to complain about compared to here…