tim sullivan with alaska railroad. the weather has been warm. >> reporter: so far anchorage received half of its average snowfall. as of friday, just 29 inches had fallen. 61 inches is normal. and the city has been storing what it plowed from local streets for the iditarod according to race coordinator carl heidelbach. >> harvesting every flaek of snow since november hiding it to make it happen. >> reporter: it wasn't enough. the 350 cubic yard of backup snow will cover three miles of the anchorage track instead of the usual 11 miles. >> we didn't want to shorten the race. but our only other option left was to take it from anchorage. that's not what we wanted. we wanted the spectacle here. for our fans here. >> reporter: it happened last year as well. when there was even less snow. and it may be a trend. over the last 60 years, winter temperatures in alaska have risen by 6 degrees. a rate twice as fast as the rest of the country. good thing in other places, here in anchorage where the iditarod is the biggest tourist ev

tim sullivan is with the alaska railroad. >> we've had some snowfall, but the weather's been warm and it keeps melting it away. >> reporter: so far this season, anchorage has only received about half of its average snowfall. as of friday, just 29 inches had fallen. 61 inches is normal. and the city's been storing what it plowed from local streets for the iditarod according to race coordinator karl heidelbach. >> they've been harvesting every flake of snow since november and hiding it for us to make this happen. >> reporter: but it still wasn't enough. the 350 cubic yards of backup snow will only cover three miles of the anchorage track instead of the usual 11 miles. >> we didn't want to shorten the race. but our only other option left was to take it away from the city of anchorage and that's not what we wanted. we wanted the spectacle here. >> reporter: it happened last year as well, when there was even less snow, and it may be a trend. over the last 60 years, winter temperatures in alaska have risen by six degrees, a rate twice as fast as the rest of the country. and while less snow