Climatological Report (Monthly)
Issued by NWS
Issued by NWS
000 CXAK57 PAJK 050817 CLMASI NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE JUNEAU AK 1206 AM AKDT MON JUN 05 2023 ................................... ...THE SITKA CLIMATE SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH OF MAY 2023... CLIMATE NORMAL PERIOD: 1991 TO 2020 CLIMATE RECORD PERIOD: 1944 TO 2023 WEATHER OBSERVED NORMAL DEPART LAST YEAR`S VALUE DATE(S) VALUE FROM VALUE NORMAL .............................................................. TEMPERATURE (F) RECORD HIGH 82 05/18/2023 LOW 29 05/06/2002 05/05/1965 HIGHEST 82R 05/18 67 15 LOWEST 36 05/04 35 1 AVG. MAXIMUM 55.6 53.3 2.3 AVG. MINIMUM 44.5 43.0 1.5 MEAN 50.1 48.1 2.0 DAYS MAX >= 90 0 0.0 0.0 DAYS MAX <= 32 0 0.0 0.0 DAYS MIN <= 32 0 0.2 -0.2 DAYS MIN <= 0 0 0.0 0.0 PRECIPITATION (INCHES) RECORD MAXIMUM 10.04 1982 MINIMUM 0.34 2015 TOTALS 5.38 3.81 1.57 DAILY AVG. 0.17 0.12 0.05 DAYS >= .01 14 16.4 -2.4 DAYS >= .10 11 9.7 1.3 DAYS >= .50 5 2.2 2.8 DAYS >= 1.00 1 0.6 0.4 GREATEST 24 HR. TOTAL 1.25 05/02 TO 05/02 DEGREE DAYS HEATING TOTAL 455 522 -67 SINCE 7/1 6270 6761 -491 COOLING TOTAL 1 0 1 SINCE 1/1 1 0 1 FREEZE DATES EARLIEST 10/08 LATEST 03/14 .............................................................. WIND (MPH) AVERAGE WIND SPEED 6.9 HIGHEST WIND SPEED/DIRECTION 26/120 DATE 05/12 26/210 05/18 HIGHEST GUST SPEED/DIRECTION 33/190 DATE 05/02 33/130 05/12 WEATHER CONDITIONS. NUMBER OF DAYS WITH THUNDERSTORM 0 MIXED PRECIP 0 HEAVY RAIN 1 RAIN 7 LIGHT RAIN 20 FREEZING RAIN 0 LT FREEZING RAIN 0 HAIL 0 HEAVY SNOW 0 SNOW 0 LIGHT SNOW 0 SLEET 1 FOG 15 FOG W/VIS <= 1/4 MILE 0 HAZE 9 - 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 $$