Although Haines set an official record for 24-hour snowfall on Jan. 26, volunteer weather observers have recorded deeper accumulations.
Data compiled by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) goes back 20 years for its weather station currently at West Fair Drive. And while last month’s snowfall is technically a record for that observation site, formerly at Paul Swift’s house and now at Jim Green’s, other locations have recorded many more inches.
Annie Boyce remembers when she and her husband Paul Swift collected weather data. “It was sometime in the early ‘90s when we had a lot of snow,” Boyce said. “They called school off. I’m going to say it was about three feet in about a 24-hour period.”
While 24 inches in 24 hours is a lot of snow, weather monitor Jim Green said, it’s “hardly a record around here.”
According to NOAA data from downtown stations and on FAA Road, 24 inches in 24 hours has been “equaled or bettered nine times” with the largest one-day snowfall occurring on Feb. 1, 1991 with 38 inches, Green said.
Green included some caveats to the data, including that snowfall is one of the most difficult of all weather elements to accurately measure. “Comparisons of snowfall over time and space is not actually very meaningful without considering the actual water equivalent of the snowfall,” Green said.