Iditarod Race Faces Challenge This Year Thanks to Uncooperative Temperatures

Carolyn Williams
Published: March 7,2015


 

Above average temperatures caused a major headache for directors of the world-famous Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska this year.
The race's usual starting location is in Anchorage, Alaska, however, poor trail conditions prompted the race committee to move the beginning point further north to Fairbanks, National Public Radio reported. "This marks the second time in the history of the Race that the Restart has been moved to Fairbanks because of poor conditions in the Alaska Range," an Iditarod press release noted.
"The culprit? The jet stream has been pushed northward over Alaska for much of this winter, allowing warmer temperatures to reach farther north than usual. Anchorage is located close to the Gulf of Alaska, which coupled with the northward bulge of the jet stream helped to produce relatively mild conditions this winter ... and poor conditions for the Iditarod," said weather.com meteorologist Chrissy Warrilow.
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Stan Hooley, Iditarod executive director, told KTVA-TV, "We were hopeful that colder weather would play a part and maybe heal up some of those bad spots, but it hasn't."
The National Weather Service noted as of March 6, there was only 1 inch of snow on the ground in Anchorage, compared to 17 inches in Fairbanks.
The race is still on, though, despite challenging conditions, including some portions of trail with little to no snow and a section of open water that is normally solid ice, NPR said.
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The mushers look forward to the experiences not far ahead, not thinking twice about the weather's poor affect on the thrilling spectacle. "It goes to these really remote villages that don't get a lot of traffic from outsiders all year long," Brent Sass, musher and recent winner of the Yukon Quest race, told NPR, "So it's really fun to pull into the villages and see the excitement from all the people and the history that the race holds."
Seventy-nine mushers will participate in this year's race, covering a nearly 1,000-mile long trail, Iditarod says. The ceremonial start will continue as planned in Anchorage on Saturday, March 7, however, the restart was pushed to Monday, March 9.
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