Ulaven_Demorte
Non-Prophet Organization
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Doggone! Snowless Alaska forces Iditarod race change
For only the second time in 42 years, the famed Iditarod Sled Dog Race has been forced to shift its route due to lack of snow, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
The start of the race, which begins March 7, has been moved from its traditional location in Willow to Fairbanks; this happened once before, in 2003.
Members of the trail committee's board voted unanimously Tuesday to change the course "due to low snowfall in some of the most treacherous sections of the trail's roughly 1,000 miles," the paper reported.
"This year, you can't go through a rock," Nome musher Burmeister told the News- Miner. "There's boulders and rocks that we've never seen there in 20-some years that are littering all the gorge, places that you'd never even see a rock because you're going over feet of snow going through there. This year, you're looking at bare ground."
Over the past 50 years, wintertime temperatures across Alaska increased by an average of more than 6.3 degrees, due to man-made climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. Overall, Alaska's temperatures are rising twice as fast as those in the lower 48 states.
For only the second time in 42 years, the famed Iditarod Sled Dog Race has been forced to shift its route due to lack of snow, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported.
The start of the race, which begins March 7, has been moved from its traditional location in Willow to Fairbanks; this happened once before, in 2003.
Members of the trail committee's board voted unanimously Tuesday to change the course "due to low snowfall in some of the most treacherous sections of the trail's roughly 1,000 miles," the paper reported.
"This year, you can't go through a rock," Nome musher Burmeister told the News- Miner. "There's boulders and rocks that we've never seen there in 20-some years that are littering all the gorge, places that you'd never even see a rock because you're going over feet of snow going through there. This year, you're looking at bare ground."
Over the past 50 years, wintertime temperatures across Alaska increased by an average of more than 6.3 degrees, due to man-made climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. Overall, Alaska's temperatures are rising twice as fast as those in the lower 48 states.