Climatological Report (Monthly) Issued by NWS
000
CXAK57 PAJK 050817
CLMKTN
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK
1206 AM AKDT MON JUN 05 2023
...................................
...THE KETCHIKAN CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF MAY 2023...
CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD: 1991 TO 2020
CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD: 1910 TO 2023
WEATHER OBSERVED NORMAL DEPART LAST YEAR`S
VALUE DATE(S) VALUE FROM VALUE
NORMAL
..............................................................
TEMPERATURE (F)
RECORD
HIGH 93 05/13/1912
LOW 23 05/28/1971
HIGHEST 77 05/17 72 5
LOWEST 36 05/08 33 3
AVG. MAXIMUM 61.1 56.9 4.2
AVG. MINIMUM 45.4 43.3 2.1
MEAN 53.2 50.1 3.1
DAYS MAX >= 90 0 0.0 0.0
DAYS MAX <= 32 0 0.0 0.0
DAYS MIN <= 32 0 1.4 -1.4
DAYS MIN <= 0 0 0.0 0.0
PRECIPITATION (INCHES)
RECORD
MAXIMUM 22.44 2001
MINIMUM 0.68 2015
TOTALS 6.20 8.68 -2.48
DAILY AVG. 0.20 0.28 -0.08
DAYS >= .01 13 16.1 -3.1
DAYS >= .10 10 11.6 -1.6
DAYS >= .50 4 5.3 -1.3
DAYS >= 1.00 1 2.7 -1.7
GREATEST
24 HR. TOTAL 2.77 05/12 TO 05/13
DEGREE DAYS
HEATING TOTAL 356 462 -106
SINCE 7/1 6427 6623 -196
COOLING TOTAL 0 0 0
SINCE 1/1 0 0 0
FREEZE DATES
EARLIEST 10/31
LATEST 04/29
..............................................................
WIND (MPH)
AVERAGE WIND SPEED 8.1
HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 29/130 DATE 05/12
HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION 43/130 DATE 05/12
WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH
THUNDERSTORM 0 MIXED PRECIP 0
HEAVY RAIN 2 RAIN 7
LIGHT RAIN 15 FREEZING RAIN 0
LT FREEZING RAIN 0 HAIL 0
HEAVY SNOW 0 SNOW 0
LIGHT SNOW 0 SLEET 0
FOG 16 FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE 0
HAZE 1
- INDICATES NEGATIVE NUMBERS.
R INDICATES RECORD WAS SET OR TIED.
MM INDICATES DATA IS MISSING.
T INDICATES TRACE AMOUNT.
$$
...ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND ABOVE NORMAL PRECIPITATION FOR MOST
CLIMATE SITES IN SE AK FOR MAY...
Around the middle of the month, Southeast Alaska had a warm, dry,
and mostly clear spell that lasted for several days with area
temperatures much above normal values, which ended up breaking daily
high temperature records for several locations on multiple days.
This warm spell skewed the daily average temperatures for the month
of May to either normal or above normal values with values
increasing the farther south you go. Yakutat`s daily average
temperature was exactly normal at 45.6 degrees for the month.
Ketchikan`s daily average temperature was 3.1 degrees above normal
for May with Juneau and Sitka falling between the values from
Ketchikan and Yakutat. If it wasn`t for the warm spell, Ketchikan
would have been around normal for the month and the other locations
would have been more below normal the farther north you went. On May
16th, Sitka tied their record high temperature that was initially
set back in 1969. On the 17th, Juneau reported a high temperature of
73, which broke their old record of 72, which was set in 2014. On
that same day, Ketchikan reported a high temperature of 77, which
broke their old record of 76, which was set in 1913. On May 18th,
Juneau reported a high temperature of 76, which broke the old record
of 74, which was set in 2018. On that same day, Sitka reported 82,
which broke their record of 77, which was set back in 1945. Finally,
also on the 18th, Yakutat reported a high of 77, which broke their
previous record of 72, which was set back in 1963.
The beginning and end of the month were much wetter and cooler as we
were in a much more active weather pattern with frontal system after
frontal system moving over the region, a few of them nearer to the
beginning of the month were associated with long fetches of deep
tropical moisture. A couple of records were broken in the central
and southern Panhandle. On May 12th, Ketchikan reported 2.66 inches
of rainfall, which broke their record of 2.61 inches, which was set
back in 1952. On the 29th, Sitka recorded 0.79 inches of rainfall,
which broke their old record of 0.59 inches, which was set back in
1963. Post-frontal onshore flow with moderate to heavy convective
shower activity is responsible for the late-month record being
broken in Sitka.
Chambers/Fritsch
$$