ANCHORAGE, Alaska – It’s bragging rights for any Anchorage resident: 2012 is in the books as the snowiest winter on record.

Flakes fell through Saturday morning and into the afternoon, and at 4 p.m. the official tally was 133.6 inches, breaking a record set during the winter of 1954-’55 by 1 inch.

With much anticipation, an afternoon snowfall measurement at the National Weather Service put Anchorage over the top.

Ruler-wielding weather service forecaster Christian Cassell, after taking the measurement, said simply, “We broke it by an inch.”

Cassell said the phones had been ringing all morning at the city’s weather service forecast office. Three members of the public stopped by to see history in the making but were turned away. It was a little bit weird having photographers and a reporter in the office, Cassell said.

“There’s going to be a lot of excited people,” Cassell said after checking his math and sending out a public information statement on the snowfall.