Mild fall is over, Winter Cold is here
Well we finally are getting into our winter mode here. For a bit thought it was bypassing us. Climate folks said fall was going to be milder and it was till this cold air moved out of Siberia. While folks in lower 48 complained about the chill they had, to most of us here who work and play in those temperature it was just normal for us. January so far been an mix bag of weather, for the interior. Rain (not an norm), snow and wind. Speaking of wind the folks out on Seward Pennsulia at the present time are under wind chill advisory for a wind chill of 56 below zero.
As of Sunday morning the cold air mass had move east to the ALCAN border. In it passing it drop temps here to -27 and also brought 4 inches of snow in it passing. This made for interesting driving conditions as just prior to it we had rain and freezing rain in the area. Been busy clearing snow and piling it up on several snow dumps I have so melt water goes into the Tundra rather then make an mess in the dooryard.
Morning lows ranged from a quite chilly -42 at Huslia to 40 at Metlakatla. Save St lawrence island with +6 to +8 the entire west coast to Bristol bay the interior and North slope were well belowzero with 8 sites below -30 and two more sites below -40. Wind chills were as cold as -56 at Deadhorse -57 at Nuiqsut and -59 at Shungnak. Galena checked in with a wind chill of -51 and many other sites werein excess of -40. Fairbanks area was in the -30 and Bettles at -37. On the other end Klawok yesterday high was 43 degrees. That is par for SEAK.
The outlook for the week is cold and more cold with possible warm up next week end. Night time temps west of Nenana will be in the -40 degree range as clear skies in that area will allow for heat lost at night. East of Nenana will see layer of stratus clouds keeping temperatures in between -20 to -30. Also there is possible snow shower activity so this will also keep temps up.
Going be interesting to see just how far east this cold mass will go before it disapiates. Looking at the jet stream and Satellite pictures out over the Pacific it is possible BC and Washington might see an drop in temps also. Surface freeze line is south of the Chain at the present looking at this morning aviation charts.
By the way the local Climate person Rich Thoman says we are behind our snow fall for the year except for Nome which so far has received 55 inches were there norm is around 21 inches. All other interior and coast station are running 21-29 inches behing in snowfall.
Well stay warm, stay well and keep the old home fires burning
John
4 thoughts on “Mild fall is over, Winter Cold is here”
Thanks for your report John. I was wondering if Rick Thoman’s snowfall amounts so far this winter also includes Prince William Sound, like Valdez and Whittier – and Thompson Pass. They really got a lot as I recall in early December. Are they running behind also? Of course their normal amount is much more than any other area of Alaska. Thanks for your reply to my query on your kinds of instrumentation. Ray and I were wondering if you have an aneroid barometer – or if you just use the pressure readings out of your VP2? Ray and I agree with you totally on the Acu-Rite weather equipment. Ray has purchased several in the past, being attracted to the lower cost, but he learned you get what you pay for and he has wound up throwing out a lot of their instruments due to poor quality and performance. Thanks, keep that log on the fire for sure! Kevin
Yes even with that record snow they are dragging behind the curve but things can change yet for that area with cold interior and warm gulf air.
I meant to tell you how much I like that cloud picture you used for that post. We don’t see those types of clouds down here very often. All ice crystals, so wispy and light. Would you consider those downward wisps to be upper-air virga? If so, then there is a lot of wind up there.. Thanks again, Kevin
Yes that is virga. I wished I had wide angle lens with me that day as that is just part of the line out over the Tanana Valley. I would say the line was about 30 miles long.