Heavy Snow, Middle Tanana Valley
- When
- March 5, 6:00 PM AKST to March 7, 9:00 PM AKST
- Where
- Middle Tanana Valley forecast zone
- Reported by
- COOP Observer
Heavy Snow in Alaska, March 5 to 7, 2012
A strong southwest flow aloft combined with a frontal boundary to produce heavy snow in the Fairbanks area. The snow began approximately 1800AKST on the 5th and continued through approximately 2100AKST on the 7th.
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS AFG wrote it up.
A strong southwest flow aloft combined with a frontal boundary to produce heavy snow in the Fairbanks area. The snow began approximately 1800AKST on the 5th and continued through approximately 2100AKST on the 7th. The Keystone Ridge Co-op Observer on Murphy Dome reported a storm total of 25.1 inches. The Fairbanks International Airport observed a storm total of 11.3 inches. Most of the low elevation sites in the Fairbanks and North Pole areas observed a storm total of 11 to 16 inches.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Fairbanks, AK wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Mar 5, 2:52 PM AKST, 3 hours 8 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Mar 5, 2:52 PM AKST, 3 hours 8 minutes before
NORTHERN ALASKA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK 252 PM AKST MON MAR 5 2012 .DISCUSSION... MODELS IN DECENT AGREEMENT THROUGH AT LEAST 48 HOURS. UPPER LEVEL RIDGE OVER NORTHERN ALASKA WITH DIGGING TROUGH OVER WEST COAST AND THE BERING SEA. STRONG SOUTHWEST FLOW SETTING UP OVER NORTHERN ALASKA. THIS FLOW WILL CONTINUE OVER THE CENTRAL PORTION OF THE STATE THROUGH AT LEAST WEDNESDAY WITH THE TROUGH CONTINUING TO DIG DEEPER AND MOVE EASTWARD BEING SPAWNED FROM THE WASHED OUT OCCLUSION. SNOWFALL MAY BE RELATIVELY HIGH OVER SOUTH AND SOUTHWEST FACING SLOPES. BLIZZARD CONDITIONS OVER WEST COAST AREAS WILL SUBSIDE EARLY THIS EVENING AS FRONTAL BOUNDARY WASHES OUT AND SURFACE LOW CONTINUES TO WEAKEN AND MOVE EASTWARD. DECENT COLD ADVECTION OVER WEST COAST WILL MOVE EASTWARD TO THE CENTRAL INTERIOR BY THE END OF THE WEEK. COLD AIR WILL REMAIN PLANTED OVER NORTHERN ALASKA THROUGH 240 HOURS AS INDICATED BY GFS AND ECMWF. THE STRONG SOUTHWEST FLOW OVER NORTHERN ALASKA WILL CREATE GUSTY WINDS OVER HIGHER TERRAIN CAUSING POOR VISIBILITY IN BLOWING SNOW THROUGH AT LEAST TUE. SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS OVER MUCH OF THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN INTERIOR THROUGH THE WEEK WILL BE THE NORM. && .AFG WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... BLIZZARD WARNING FOR AKZ212. WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY FOR AKZ211-AKZ214-AKZ215-AKZ216-AKZ220- AKZ221-AKZ222-AKZ227. BRISK WIND ADVISORY FOR PKZ200-PKZ210-PKZ215-PKZ220. && CF/CA MAR 12
Event by event
1 heavy snow. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Heavy Snow
- Snowfall reaching the local warning threshold without the other hazards of a winter storm.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Strong Wind in Virginia, March 5, 2012
- Wildfire in Georgia, March 5 to 6, 2012
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in West Virginia, March 5, 2012
- Winter Storm and Winter Weather in Virginia, March 5, 2012
- Winter Weather in Ohio, March 5, 2012
- Winter Weather in Virginia, March 5, 2012
- High Surf in Hawaii, March 5 to 7, 2012
- Marine Strong Wind in North Atlantic Coastal Waters, March 5, 2012
- Heavy Snow and Winter Weather in Kentucky, March 5, 2012
- High Wind in Wyoming, March 5 to 6, 2012
- Winter Storm in Virginia, March 5, 2012
- Wildfire in Oklahoma, March 5, 2012
More
Every storm in Alaska in 2012Every state in 2012This day in weather historyWarnings in Alaska, March 2012
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 359842.