By HENRY COLT and
SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writers
Sitka was digging out of its second day of heavy snowfall today, the 6.5 inches measured this morning bringing the total on the ground to more than a foot.
It was enough to delay Thursday’s opening of schools after the holiday recess, and for the public bus service, the RIDE, to cancel its fixed-route service.
The National Weather Service said more snow is forecast, to be followed by a “deep freeze” by the weekend.
School District Superintendent Mary Wegner said that Thursday will be the first school snow day in more than a decade, though snow did cause classes to be let out early one day two years ago.
“There just aren’t enough safe places for students to wait for the school buses until folks get a chance to shovel sidewalks and corners,” Wegner said in a text about the school holiday.
Tonight’s Sitka School Board meeting is canceled, and Wooch.een Preschool and Ventures programs also will be canceled for Thursday, officials said. Other activities that will be not be held Thursday are play group at Grace Harbor Church, storytime at the Sitka Public Library, and shooting at the Sitka Sportsman’s Association ranges.
Dylan Marx shovels snow in front of his family’s house on Park Street this morning. There was a foot of snow on the ground at 8 this morning. Heavy snowfall in recent days has caused the Sitka School District to cancel school Thursday. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
The RIDE, which is operated by Sitka Tribe of Alaska, suspended bus service at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday because of road conditions, STA Transportation Director Gerry Hope said. Service was restarted 6:30 a.m. today but was shut down again at 9:30 because of snow piled up at bus stops, he said.
“It’s hard for the drivers to get into bus stops, and for passengers to be waiting at the bus stops,” Hope said. He had snow cleared away from a number of stops, but new snowfall and the berms created by city snowplows blocked them off again, he said.
“It’s hard for me to keep up,” Hope said, adding, “I haven’t seen snow like this in a long time.” Even after the snow stops falling, the freeze anticipated next week will keep the RIDE on alert, he said.
Official weather statistics for Sitka are recorded at the City Water Treatment Plant, which reported this morning that 6.5 inches of snow fell in the 24 hours ending at 8 a.m. today, with more than a foot on the ground. An additional three-quarters of an inch had fallen by noon today. The Weather Service says 1 to 3 inches is expected Thursday, with higher snowfall anticipated on the south end of Baranof Island.
“Right now we’re in a very ‘showery’ weather pattern,” Cody Moore, NWS meteorologist in Juneau, said. “Scattered snow showers are going to continue over the next day or so. Very light accumulation is expected, one inch Thursday and Friday.”
At city hall Interim City Administrator Hugh Bevan said city crews have been keeping the roads open without the assistance usually provided by private contractors.
“We didn’t get any bids this year for that private sector contract,” he said, “so our crew has been doing the streets, and the parking lots, and everything that the city has been doing over the years without any private sector assistance — that’s hurt us.”
He said the crew has been starting work at 3 a.m. and plowing “right into the afternoon.”
Bevan said there have been other challenges this year, including finding places to put the snow.
“One of the problems is that, over the years, people have filled in ditches alongside the roads for various things like storing boats, and so there aren’t as many good places to store snow as there might be,” he said.
Bevan said that once the weather breaks, the crew will begin hauling snow from the side of the road to dump sites, but that so far the crew has been too busy just trying to keep the streets open.
The National Weather Service said Sitka had some of the heaviest snowfall in Southeast over the past few days, with more light snow expected tonight, Thursday and Friday.
“The Panhandle goes into a deep freeze, it gets very cold after that,” Moore said. “Skies will begin to clear after the storm system heads out. On Friday and into the weekend, temperatures are going to drop into the teens and 20s ... into much of next week.”
He said current weather conditions are from an arctic front pushing southward throughout the Panhandle.
“That’s going to clear through the Sitka area by this weekend; that’s going to allow all the cold air to spill into the Panhandle,” Moore said. “We are normally much warmer this time of year because we have a strong ocean influence, but when we get outflow winds from Canada, that kind of turns off the ocean influence and we get all that arctic air rushing in.”
The cold air will remain until a larger storm system “scours it out,” he said. “We have an arctic high pressure over Canada that’s going to keep the cold air locked in place.”
John Holst, who was Sitka school superintendent from 1993 to 2001, said he recalls a day when classes were canceled after the snowplows cleared streets enough for cars but not buses.
“Buses couldn’t make the turn, and the streets were impassable,” he said.
