Fall in Alaska & Canada

In 1971, when we were young and foolish, or should I say courageous, we left Anchorage on the 26th of February towing an 18' travel trailer. The snow we encountered had the consistency of sand and posed no real problem There were studded snow tires on all four wheels of our Ford station wagon. The big problem was that there were no RV campgrounds open at that time of the year. Thanks to the hospitality of the Canadians along the way, we spent overnight in the parking lots of bars and super markets. In Calgary, the campground was open, but part of the parking area was a solid sheet of ice. The studded snow tires worked well. When we were crossing the prairies, we encountered a whiteout for several miles which made driving very slow so that we could stay on the road. We made it safely all the way to Maryland in 13 days. Now that we are older and not so bold, I don't think we would do it again.

Regarding when to leave Alaska...

It isn't uncommon to have a flurry in September in southern Yukon or northern B.C. In recent years, we haven't had permanent snow until November.

People camp year-round up here though. If you're prepared (winter tires, good blankets, etc.) then fall/winter camping is a good thing. Before moving here we made two trips in December up the Alaska Highway to visit family in Beaver Creek, Yukon. Had temps to -40 on both trips.
December 1998: http://yukonsights.ca/19981212_AlaskaHwy.html
December 2001: http://yukonsights.ca/20011215_AlaskaHwy.html

Here's March 2013 with the fifth wheel: http://yukonsights.ca/20130328_Whitehorse-Rancheria.html

And more relevant to the question, September 2007 trip to Yukon and then back to southern B.C. the end of September: http://yukonsights.ca/2007SeptemberMain.html

This was a flurry on 17 September 2007 on the AK Hwy in B.C. This turned into an ice storm near Fort St John, B.C. that shut down traffic for a day.

Yup, weird weather this year. Only 6" of snow up to January. Hardly enough for ski-doing during the Christmas break. It is the first winter I remember when we didn't reach temps of -40. Had numerous days when we were warmer than Vancouver Island.

The past two weeks we've had about a foot total, might get out on the snowmachines today!

The end of February we drove to Kluane Lake, Yukon...not much snow.

You can get freak storms any time of the year in Alberta and BC. I recall back in the early 80's a freak snow storm August long weekend as I drove through Greenwood BC, which is about 5 miles from the Wash. state boarder with BC, It lasted all of about 2 hrs. Couple years back my Daughter in Calgary had a dump of snow first week of June.
In Southern BC "Usually" we don't get any snow down in the Valley bottoms until mid to late November. Up in the Mountains you usually start seeing snow mid to late October, as we start snowmobiling usually by mid to late November "usually"
However if you count this last winter we really didn't have any snow in the Valley bottoms until the week before Xmas and that was gone 1st week on Feb, and hardly anything in the mountains all year. We in South eastern BC had only 15% of the regular snow pack this past winter, going to be a Hot summer this year with lots of risks of Forrest fires that for sure.
Northern BC well it's northern BC, like anywhere you can get a freak storm, as I don't live up there I can't comment on their weather patterns.
However we see the weather on TV for all of BC and the Southern Yukon ( Hi Sue) daily and they are starting to having weird weather up there just like we are starting to see down so who knows what to expect.

Best to go with the norm now to be on the safe side, which others have posted for leaving the North.
Soup.

tonymull wrote:
I'd agree that leaving in mid september is a good idea unless you are comfortable and prepared for bad weather. People come and go on the Alaska Highway all winter. Weather stays pretty good in BC south of Kamloops till mid November. Farther inland I don't think that is true. At any rate you can get fluke storms in the higher elevations anytime after mid august.

I meant leaving Alaska in mid Sept. We left on the 10th when we moved to WA, drove through fall colors back into late summer here in WA and then had fall all over again!

I'd agree that leaving in mid september is a good idea unless you are comfortable and prepared for bad weather. People come and go on the Alaska Highway all winter. Weather stays pretty good in BC south of Kamloops till mid November. Farther inland I don't think that is true. At any rate you can get fluke storms in the higher elevations anytime after mid august.

You can still have reasonable weather in both the Anchorage bowl region, AKA, the Banana Belt, but to drive out, you have to go through the Interior of Alaska and Northern Canada. The years we lived in Nenana Alaska, we anticipate the first sticking snow of winter about October 5, a family members birthday is how I remember.

Wouldn't be unexpected to run into tempertures close to 0F at night in the Interior. But the good thing is you don't tend to get heavy snows in the Interior. Most of it is basically a northern desert due to the limited moisture received. But with the colder winter temperatures and the underlying permanent frost, the snow and rain received goes a long ways.

I would generally recommend leaving Alaska the third week of September for most visitors. While living in rural Alaska for 25+ years, that was about when we parked the summer toys, got the winter ones ready to go, put the skiis on the airplanes and waited for winter.

But if a person wants to stay longer,just make sure your RV is ready to handle and cold weather or snow storms you might hit. Just don't get in too big a hurry, if you need to spend a couple of days at a town or roadhouse waiting for the road crews to clear the roads, then do so.

It depends where in Canada you are! For example, I live in Canada, but we have much milder winters than Indianapolis. We have had NO snow this past winter. On October 1st last year though, we had temps of 45-62F, compared to Indianapolis at 49-76F. By the end of the month though we have overtaken temperature wise with temps of 41-54F compared to 33-47F at Indianapolis.
It isn't all ice & snow up here!