Doyle Rice

USA TODAY

Seven freight cars filled with snow rolled toward Anchorage on Thursday ahead of the famed Iditarod sled dog race that for the second year in a row is struggling with melt-inducing warm temperatures.

The race kicks off Saturday in Anchorage with a ceremonial opening route that usually includes 11 miles on local streets and trails.

The freshly shipped snow from hundreds of miles away in Fairbanks still won't be enough for the festivities in Alaska's largest city: the route will be reduced to 3 miles, the Iditarod Trail Committee said in a statement.

Unusually warm temperatures the past few weeks melted much of the snow in Anchorage, including stockpiles the city set aside for the fan-friendly event and 45th year of the race, the Associated Press reported.

It's the second year in a row organizers needed to change aspects of the race due to a lack of snow. In 2015, officials shifted the race's route because of low snowfall in some of the "most treacherous sections of the trail."

Doggone! Snowless Alaska forces Iditarod race change

Snowfall in Anchorage this season is well below average. The city has received just 21.9 inches of snow between Nov. 1, according to AccuWeather. The city normally receives about 60 inches of snow through March 1.

After the ceremonial start in Anchorage, the trail takes mushers and dogs on a nearly 1,000-mile trek across Alaska, through the Alaska Range, down the Yukon River and along the Bering Sea coast to the old gold rush town of Nome.

Since Dec. 1, Nome has received 24 inches of snow. That gives the city about 42 inches for the season when it normally receives about 57 inches through March 1, AccuWeather reported.

A persistent ridge of high pressure over Alaska and western Canada brought clearer skies and less rain and snow to the region this winter, AccuWeather meteorologist Jason Nicholls.

The weather pattern, which has beset the area the past couple years, is likely the result of warmer-than-normal waters over the Gulf of Alaska and the northwest Pacific Ocean, he added.

Over the past 50 years, wintertime temperatures across Alaska increased by an average of more than 6.3 degrees, primarily due to man-made climate change, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. The state's temperatures are rising twice as fast as those in the lower 48, the EPA said.