First Race of the Season.... iffffy

The first race of the dog mushing season, the Two Rivers Tune-Up, is scheduled for this Saturday, November 27th.

Trail conditions were GREAT last week. This week, however, things have changed dramatically. The snow pack is melting and ice and water are replacing it. It is a sad, sad state for dog mushing enthusiasts. The race has not been canceled yet, but conditions do not look good!

Here at SP Kennel were are constantly checking the National Weather Service website, but all we really need to do is open the door and walk outside. The reality is that slick ice is something that sled dogs can manage and will manage on glare ice ponds or windswept rivers, when the situation warrants. But to ask them to train for hours on icy trails while slipping and sliding, is only going to cause shoulder injuries and foot rubs (from their water drenched dog booties).

Fairbanks has been on national news for the current weather conditions. Here is a snip of an article from our local newspaper ; the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner:

FAIRBANKS — Meteorologists described Monday’s widespread rainfall as an “extraordinary event,” and it’s not over yet. Almost half an inch of rain had fallen at Fairbanks International Airport by 10 p.m. Monday, and forecasters at the National Weather Service said more than an inch of rain could fall by the time it stops Wednesday.
The official measurement of 0.46 inches at 10 p.m. set the record for the most rain on a day in November, and more was expected before the final official measurement at midnight.
“We haven’t ever seen anything like this in the Interior,” hydrologist Ed Plumb at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks said Monday as the rain fell.
The service issued a winter storm warning that remains in effect through 6 p.m. today.(Wednesday)
The rain will compact and melt the snowpack and it is possible that runoff from rain and melting snow will cause ponding on roadways and other poor drainage areas, as well as localized flooding, the service advised in a statement Monday. An extremely warm and moist airmass moving around a large high pressure system over the North Pacific pumped warm, moist air into the Interior and much of the rest of the state early Monday morning, resulting in widespread rain from Anchorage to Barrow, said meteorologist Brad Sipperley.
“It started raining at 5:30 a.m.(Monday) and it’s been raining ever since,” he said just before noon. “We’ve had freezing rain from Anchorage to Barrow.”
Rain during the winter in Fairbanks is unusual, and rainfall of more than one-quarter of an inch between mid-November and early April are extremely rare, according to the weather service. This storm is only the second time in more than 100 years that measurable rainfall was recorded in Fairbanks in the second half of November, according to weather service records. The only other November rainfall on record was Nov. 24, 1936, when 0.42 inches of rain fell.

Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Ice storm unprecedented in Interior Alaska meteorologists say

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