Climatological Report (Annual)
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
000 CXAK57 PAJK 161456 CCA CLAYAK CLIMATE REPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK 350 AM AKST THU JAN 14 2021 ................................... ...THE YAKUTAT CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE YEAR OF 2020... CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD: 1981 TO 2010 CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD: 1917 TO 2021 WEATHER OBSERVED NORMAL DEPART LAST YEAR`S VALUE DATE(S) VALUE FROM VALUE DATE(S) NORMAL ................................................................ TEMPERATURE (F) RECORD HIGH 88 08/15/2004 LOW -24 12/30/1964 HIGHEST 80 07/31 77 3 87 06/27 LOWEST -3 01/15 -4 -1 2 01/09 01/12 AVG. MAXIMUM 46.7 46.9 -0.2 AVG. MINIMUM 34.2 33.7 0.5 MEAN 40.5 40.3 0.2 43.8 DAYS MAX >= 90 0 0.0 0.0 0 DAYS MAX <= 32 41 34.1 6.9 17 DAYS MIN <= 32 162 153.1 8.9 123 DAYS MIN <= 0 3 4.3 -1.3 0 PRECIPITATION (INCHES) RECORD MAXIMUM 250.24 1987 MINIMUM 85.99 1950 TOTALS 104.55 155.12 -50.66 107.85 DAILY AVG. 0.29 0.42 -0.13 DAYS >= .01 243 240.1 2.9 206 DAYS >= .10 178 186.2 -8.2 144 DAYS >= .50 75 97.6 -22.6 72 DAYS >= 1.00 24 51.3 -27.3 31 GREATEST 24 HR. TOTAL 3.15 08/09 TO 08/09 DEGREE DAYS HEATING TOTAL 8764 9018 -254 7397 SINCE 7/1 3738 3982 -244 COOLING TOTAL 0 0 0 4 SINCE 1/1 0 0 0 FREEZE DATES EARLIEST 09/27 LATEST 05/06 ................................................................ WIND (MPH) AVERAGE WIND SPEED 5.6 HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 39/120 DATE 02/20 HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION 64/120 DATE 11/28 WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH THUNDERSTORM 0 MIXED PRECIP 0 HEAVY RAIN 55 RAIN 125 LIGHT RAIN 222 FREEZING RAIN 2 LT FREEZING RAIN 10 HAIL 0 HEAVY SNOW 26 SNOW 45 LIGHT SNOW 94 SLEET 0 FOG 288 FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE 61 HAZE 45 - INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS. R INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED. MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING. T INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT. $$ ...RECORD WET SUMMER FOR MOST OF SOUTHEAST ALASKA... THE ANNUAL CLIMATE FOR 2020 SHOWED A RECURRING THEME FOR THE PAST FEW MONTHS OF A WARMER THAN NORMAL (1981-2010) YEAR. EXTREME PRECIPITATION EVENTS OCCURRED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR AND HELPED ALASKA BECOME OFFICIALLY DROUGHT-FREE BY MARCH 2020. NOW THAT WE HAVE MADE IT TO 2021, LET US LOOK BACK AT THE CHANGES THROUGH THE SEASONS. THE YEAR STARTED ON A WARM NOTE WITH MOST LOCATIONS ACROSS SE AK HAVING THEIR WARMEST TEMPERATURES FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY EARLY IN THE MONTH, WITH MANY AREAS EXPERIENCING HIGHS REACHING THE LOWER 40S. A DAY LATER, AN ARCTIC IMPULSE BROUGHT LOW TEMPERATURES DOWN TO NEGATIVES VALUES WITH DAYTIME HIGHS STRUGGLING TO REACH DOUBLE DIGITS. KLAWOCK AND KETCHIKAN RECORDED NEW DAILY RECORD LOW VALUES DURING THIS TIME. BY THE MIDDLE OF JANUARY, AVERAGE TEMPERATURES WARMED UP CLOSER TO NORMAL AND STAYED THIS WAY FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE LATE WINTER SEASON(JANUARY/FEBRUARY). BELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION OCCURRED ACROSS THE PANHANDLE FOR JANUARY, BUT JUNEAU HAD ABOVE NORMAL SNOWFALL DUE TO A STORM AT THE END OF THE MONTH AND 8 INCHES OF NEW SNOW. THROUGH FEBRUARY, PRECIPITATION TOTALS FOR RAINFALL AND SNOWFALL INCREASED, SETTING UP ALL CLIMATE SITES, EXCEPT YAKUTAT, TO COMPLETE THE 2020 WINTER SEASON WITH ABOVE NORMAL VALUES. ON FEBRUARY 21ST, HYDER RECORDED ITS LARGEST 24-HOUR PRECIPITATION SINCE RECORDS BEGAN THERE IN 1936 WITH 4.54" (3.68" 1942). KLAWOCK HAD ITS WETTEST FEBRUARY IN THE PAST TWO DECADES WITH 11.28" OF RAINFALL FOR THE MONTH. MOVING INTO SPRINGTIME (MARCH TO MAY), THE SEASON STARTED WITH A MAJOR STORM EVENT BRINGING 9 INCHES OF NEW SNOW TO YAKUTAT AND LEAVING EAGLECREST WITH ITS 4TH HIGHEST SNOWPACK ON RECORD. MOVING THROUGH THE DATES, MARCH 7TH WAS THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE START OF THE YEAR THAT JUNEAU DID NOT REPORT AT LEAST A TRACE OF PRECIPITATION! BY MARCH 10TH, THE ENTIRE STATE WAS FINALLY DECLARED DROUGHT-FREE WITH NO LOCATIONS EVEN LISTED AS ABNORMALLY DRY, THE FIRST TIME SINCE JANUARY 2018. SITKA RECEIVED EXCEPTIONALLY HIGH RAINFALL THROUGH MUCH OF MARCH, BUT WITH A DRY LAST WEEK, FAILED TO SECURE A RECORD. ALL FOUR CLIMATE SITES ENDED THE SEASON WITH NORMAL TO BELOW NORMAL PRECIPITATION. MARCH STARTED THE SEASON WITH NEAR- NORMAL HIGH TEMPERATURES AND BELOW NORMAL LOWS, WHICH FLIPPED TO NEAR NORMAL LOWS AND ABOVE NORMAL HIGHS BY MID-APRIL. THIS TREND CONTINUED AND BROUGHT RECORD DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR MAY 9TH AND MAY 10TH. OVERALL, CLIMATE SITES HAD NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR MARCH AND APRIL. FOR MAY, THE SPRING SEASON ENDED WITH AVERAGE TEMPERATURES RANKING IN THE TOP 10 WARMEST ON RECORD. TO START THE SUMMER SEASON (JUNE TO AUGUST), JUNE BROUGHT PRECIPITATION LEVELS BACK TO WELL ABOVE NORMAL IN SE AK. DURING JULY, THREE GLACIALLY DAMMED LAKES WERE RECORDED AS WELL. JULY 31ST FEATURED A RARE WAVE OF THUNDERSTORMS ROLLING IN THROUGH THE EVENING AND OVERNIGHT, PRODUCING GUSTY WINDS AND HEAVY RAINS. THIS DAY WAS YAKUTAT`S WARMEST DAY FOR THE YEAR AT 80 DEGREES AND ALSO SAW SITKA TIE A RECORD DATING BACK TO 1976 FOR THE WARMEST TEMPERATURE RECORDED OF 88 DEGREES ON THIS DAY! OVERALL, THE SUMMER HAD NEAR NORMAL TEMPERATURES, WITH A FEW DAILY RECORD HIGHS AT THE BOOKENDS OF JULY. THE WETTEST SUMMER RECORDS WERE BROKEN BY BOTH KETCHIKAN 47.29" (46.99 2017) AND PETERSBURG 31.60" (31.06" 2015)! AFTER A RECORD-BREAKING SUMMER IN TERMS OF RAINFALL, THE AUTUMN SEASON (SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER) RETURNED TO BEING DRIER THAN NORMAL THROUGH ALL THREE MONTHS. ALL FOUR CLIMATE SITES REPORTED WELL BELOW THEIR MONTHLY NORMALS, RANGING FROM 40% TO 60% THEIR NORMALS. HAZE AND SMOKE FROM THE WILDFIRES IN THE INTERIOR AND LOWER 48 BECAME VISIBLE ON SOME DAYS HERE IN SE AK. THE DRIER THAN NORMAL OVERALL WEATHER DID NOT MEAN THAT THE PANHANDLE WAS FREE FROM EXTREME PRECIPITATION EVENTS. HEAVY RAINFALL ON OCTOBER 26TH RESULTED IN NUMEROUS LANDSLIDES ON PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND. ON THE SAME DAY, KLAWOCK RECORDED ITS 4TH WETTEST 24-HOUR RAINFALL TOTAL OF 3.60" (3.94" 2003). A SECOND PRECIPITATION EVENT STARTED ON NOVEMBER 1ST WITH RAIN FOR THE SOUTHERN PANHANDLE AND SNOW FOR THE NORTH. JUNEAU RECORDED 7.6 OF SNOWFALL, WHICH WAS AN UNUSUALLY HEAVY START TO THE SNOW SEASON. OVERALL, KETCHIKAN HAD IT`S 2ND DRIEST SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER 16.64" (16.50" 2018), BUT WENT ON TO HAVE ITS 3RD WETTEST NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 60.77" (65.13" 1969). ON NOVEMBER 29TH, HYDER RECORDED THE LARGEST 24-HOUR SNOWFALL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN THERE IN 1936 OF 27.8". THE ANNUAL CLIMATE SUMMARY CONCLUDES WITH THE START OF WINTER, DECEMBER. THIS HISTORIC MONTH STARTED WITH AN ATMOSPHERIC RIVER THAT PRODUCED WIDESPREAD RECORD RAINFALL AND WARMER THAN NORMAL TEMPERATURES WTIH GUSTY WINDS. FEW WILL SOON FORGET THE NUMEROUS LANDSLIDES ACROSS SE AK AND THE TERRIBLE DEVASTATION THAT OCCURED IN HAINES. IN ADDITION TO THE DEADLY LANDSLIDE, HAINES RECORDED THEIR WETTEST DECEMBER ON RECORD WITH RECORDS GOING BACK TO 1925. JUNEAU RECORDED THE LARGEST 24-HOUR RAINFALL SINCE RECORDS BEGAN THERE IN 1936 WITH 4.93" (4.62" 1946). THE WET TREND CONTINUED THROUGH THE MONTH AND JUNEAU ENDED ITS 2ND WETTEST DECEMBER ON RECORD WITH A TOTAL PRECIPITATION AMOUNT OF 12.74", MORE THAN DOUBLE THE NORMAL. KETCHIKAN FOLLOWS A SIMILAR PATTERN, WITH 30.72" OF TOTAL PRECIPITATION FOR THE MONTH, MAKING IT THE 4TH WETTEST DECEMBER ON RECORD (STARTING IN 1910). THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN A CENTURY THAT BACK-TO-BACK MONTHS HAVE EXCEEDED 30" OF PRECIPITATION IN KETCHIKAN. YAKUTAT WAS THE ONLY CLIMATE STATION WHERE THE TOTAL PRECIPITATION AMOUNT (11.09") WAS BELOW NORMAL (16.28"). DUE TO WARMER THAN NORMAL TEMPERATURES, TOTAL SNOWFALL ACCUMULATION IN JUNEAU FOR DECEMBER WAS 8.3", 47% BELOW NORMAL. ON DECEMBER 24TH, HYDER RECORDED ITS 2ND LARGEST 24-HOUR SNOWFALL OF 23.0". FOR THE FIRST 7 DAYS OF DECEMBER, AVERAGE TEMPERATURES STARTED SIGNIFICANTLY WARMER, AND THIS TREND CONTINUED THROUGH THE MONTH. BY THE END OF THE MONTH, ALL FOUR SITES ENDED WITH A MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE 5 DEGREES WARMER THAN NORMAL! LOOKING AT ANNUAL VALUES, MOST CLIMATE SITES ENDED THE YEAR WITH THE COLDEST AVERAGE TEMPERATURE SINCE 2012. FOR PRECIPITATION, KETCHIKAN HAD ITS 11TH WETTEST YEAR AND JUNEAU ITS 5TH WETTEST YEAR 77.55" (85.15" 1991). WITH A GOOD START TO SNOWFALL IN JANUARY, JUNEAU STAYED ABOVE NORMAL WITH 91.5" (86.7" NORMAL). HYDER BROKE ITS 24- HOUR PRECIPITATION AND SNOWFALL RECORDS THIS YEAR! YAKUTAT WAS THE ONE CLIMATE SITE THAT ENDED THE YEAR WITH DRY CONDITIONS, 104.55" OF PRECIPITATION (85.99 1950 DRIEST). $$