Rain? Snow? Wind?

I just got done listening to Heister and Lee.....these guys are the Iditarod Insider commentators and they are up in Grayling on the Yukon River, about 100 miles from the front runners Joar and Nic Petitt.....they said it RAINED there yesterday.....interior Alaska in March and it rained!  This has happened before, but it always make me go Hmmmm.  Climate change is definitely real, alive and well in Alaska. 

With rain comes warmth, relatively speaking...in the 30s.  Its colder here in the Adirondacks than in Alaska right now.  Apparently there is lots of snow on the Yukon, but I feel it shouldn't be an issue as there are a lot of snow machines using the river as a highway, and wet snow packs well.  They were talking wind on the coast could be an issue too creating ground blizzards, but wet heavy snow wont really make much of a ground blizzard.  We will have to wait to see what the next several days bring in regards to weather.  But right now, we have Teams making their way west to the Yukon....first checkpoint where they can opt to take their 8 hour mandatory rest is in Shageluk...last checkpoint to take it is in Kaltag.  But for the in between times where no one is taking it we can at least compare apples to apples in regard to speed and position.  Here is were they are at right now as they head over from Iditarod to Shageluk:

Joar at mile 477
Nic Petit at mile 471
Jessie Royer at mile 451
Pete Kaiser at mile 442
Mitch Seavey at mile 442
Richie Diehl at mile 441
Redington at mile 435

Aliy is still waiting out her mandatory 24 hour rest in Iditarod, mile 432...she will be able to leave around 6:46 our time...2:46 Alaska time.  We will see how the fresh Team does to catch back up to the chase pack. The Teams did that run to Iditarod several hours faster than Aliy.  I thought I saw her Team pushing snow as they came in but they must have been going through a drift, as there was actually grass showing in the last 10 miles into Iditarod, making the travel difficult through the tussocks.  It was odd there was little snow cover there, because back in Takotna there was a lot of snow.   Right now they are calling for 4 to 7 inches of snow to fall along the Yukon.....lets just hope it doesn't turn to rain like it did yesterday.