Season’s first big snow fouls roads and shifts Anchorage schools to remote learning

Lucas Sterling, 8, makes a snow angel in an East Anchorage neighborhood as the city digs out from the first snowfall of the season on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)

The season’s first major snowfall blanketed Anchorage and much of Southcentral Alaska on Monday and into Tuesday, triggering remote learning and other closures and complicating travel.

A record 6 inches of snow fell in West Anchorage on Monday, besting the previous record for Oct. 28 set in 1982, according to the National Weather Service.

Once the snow stopped, the agency measured a foot of snow at its Sand Lake offices by 10 a.m. Tuesday, with lower amounts reported in other parts of the city. Regional storm totals ranged from just a few inches in parts of Eagle River to 5 inches in Palmer, nearly 12 inches in Nikiski, and 13 inches in Big Lake.

The Anchorage School District declared a remote learning day Tuesday for all schools except Girdwood PreK-8 due to hazardous weather and roads and canceled after-school activities and community rentals.

In Mat-Su, schools in regions 4, 5 and 6 shifted to remote learning Tuesday and regions 1, 2, and 3 were on a two-hour delay, with morning PreK canceled. The Kenai Peninsula Borough School District closed 20 schools including those in Kenai and Soldotna. The University of Alaska Anchorage canceled in-person classes, and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was on a delayed schedule.

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Tracy Smithmyer shovels the entry to 6th Avenue Outfitters during the snowfall in downtown Anchorage on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2024. (Bill Roth / ADN)

Between 10 a.m. Monday and 4 p.m. Tuesday, Anchorage police logged 16 crashes involving injuries, 84 other collisions and more than 100 reports of vehicles in distress, according to a department spokeswoman.

Alaska State Troopers reported several weather-related collisions in Mat-Su on Monday.

People wait in line for tire changeovers at Alyeska Tire on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024 in South Anchorage. The first customer said he got in line at 4:00 a.m. and by the time the shop opened at 8:00 a.m. the employees were having to turn away customers. The shop, which only takes walk-ins, can accommodate about 60 changeovers a day. (Loren Holmes / ADN)

People Mover buses were running Tuesday but possibly behind schedule due to weather and road conditions, according to an update Tuesday.

As of Tuesday afternoon, crews from the city’s street maintenance division were still clearing main arterial roadways in the Anchorage Bowl.

According to an update from the municipality, officials expect plowing on residential streets in neighborhoods to begin Tuesday evening and continue overnight into Wednesday. Trucks will also begin hauling snow loads from downtown streets Tuesday night, they said.