The cold, cloudy, wet weather has been with Alaskans since May, with a only a few short breaks here and there. Here’s a recent example from the usually warmish Copper River Basin: A rainy day Wednesday in Glennallen (wx data from close-by Gulkana–that’s where the airport and weather station are for the Glennallen area) with a high of only 48F (9C), then some clearing overnight allowing the temperature to drop to 29F (-2C), the coldest spot in the state Thursday morning. That’s right, below freezing in late June. And it’s the 6th day in a row that the cold spot of the state has been at or below zero Celsius. Further inland, Eagle was the warmest spot in the state, but only at 70F (21C). Nice, but not a very warm day for Eagle on the Yukon, and not a temperature you’d expect for the hot spot. No station in Alaska has managed 80F (27C) since last weekend, which was one of those glorious breaks from the cold, with many places in the 80s, even upper 80s (~31C) on Friday through Sunday. It brings some truth to the old joke, “summer in Alaska can be really nice, and we’re especially thankful if it falls on a weekend.”
How about the 4th of July?
While we are still a little too far out for any forecast detail with hope of accuracy, it is looking likely the current cool trend will still be with us to varying degrees. Worst area will probably be the long suffering southwest quadrant of the state, with Southcentral not a whole lot better. The Interior and Southeast might get by with OK weather, which is not bad for this summer. Here’s why: A strong upper level low moving down the west coast from Siberia. Boy, have we seen this before!
You may use the comment form below to let me know how summer has been in your neck of the woods.
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Here’s the rundown of highs, lows, and precipitation for the last 24 hours. Typical for this summer:
ALASKA TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION BULLETIN NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK 435 PM AKDT FRI JUN 29 2012 HIGHEST TEMPERATURE LAST 12 HOURS. LOWEST TEMPERATURE LAST 24 HOURS. A "-" INDICATES TEMPERATURES BELOW ZERO. PRECIPITATION FOR 24 HOURS ENDING AT 4 PM AKDT. : ID STATION HI LO PCPN SNOW : DEPTH PAFC : ANCHORAGE NWS : 62 / 47 / 0.00 / PANT : ANNETTE : 60 / 50 / 0.36 / PABR : BARROW AIRPORT : 44 / 34 / 0.00 / PABE : BETHEL : 56 / 41 / 0.00 / PABT : BETTLES : 62 / 55 / 0.04 / PABV : BIRCHWOOD : 59 / 48 / M / PACD : COLD BAY : 48 / 40 / 0.05 / PACV : CORDOVA : 60 / 36 / 0.00 / PADL : DILLINGHAM : 52 / 43 / M / PADU : DUTCH HARBOR : 50 / 46 / T / PAFA : FAIRBANKS AIRPORT : 68 / 52 / T / PAGK : GULKANA : 67 / 39 / 0.01 / PAHO : HOMER : 54 / 48 / 0.03 / PAJN : JUNEAU : 50 / 48 / 1.50 / PAEN : KENAI : 63 / 43 / 0.01 / PAKN : KING SALMON : 59 / 38 / 0.00 / PADQ : KODIAK : 60 / 46 / 0.03 / PAOT : KOTZEBUE : 50 / 41 / 0.00 / PAMC : MCGRATH : 68 / 54 / 0.02 / PAOM : NOME : 50 / 43 / 0.00 / PAOR : NORTHWAY AIRPORT : 67 / 47 / 0.00 / PAAQ : PALMER : 64 / 48 / 0.00 / PAPG : PETERSBURG : 54 / 48 / M / PASN : SAINT PAUL ISLAND : 45 / 40 / 0.10 / PAWD : SEWARD : 68 / 47 / T / PASI : SITKA : 52 / 47 / 0.17 / PATK : TALKEETNA : 64 / 47 / 0.06 / PAVD : VALDEZ : 63 / 45 / T / PAWS : WASILLA : 61 / 45 / M / PAWR : WHITTIER : 62 / 51 / 0.00 / PAYA : YAKUTAT : 53 / 49 / 0.14 / : : ALASKA TEMPERATURE EXTREMES. : HIGHEST TEMPERATURE LAST 12 HOURS. : 69 AT KALTAG : LOWEST TEMPERATURE LAST 24 HOURS. : 30 AT MEKORYUK
Here are the details for the Gulkana freeze (times listed in ADT) (the hourly temperatures only got down to 30, but 29 was reached between the hourlys, something you can discover by looking at the undecoded observations, or on daily climate reports:
ID day time sky vis temp dp wind alt RH wind chill PAGK AA 27 0453 OVC042 10 46 39 21008 960 76% 41 PAGK AA 27 0553 FEW010 BKN042 OVC055 10 R- 45 41 19008 962 86% 40 PAGK AA 27 0653 FEW006 BKN040 OVC055 10 R- 45 42 18008 963 89% 40 PAGK AA 27 0753 FEW006 BKN045 OVC055 10 R- 45 43 19007 964 93% 41 PAGK AA 27 0853 FEW020 BKN035 OVC050 10 R- 46 43 19006 965 89% 42 PAGK AA 27 0953 FEW020 BKN030 OVC050 10 R- 46 43 18008 965 89% 41 PAGK AA 27 1053 FEW007 BKN028 OVC050 10 R- 47 44 17008 965 89% 43 PAGK AA 27 1153 FEW007 OVC028 10 47 44 17009 966 89% 42 PAGK AA 27 1253 FEW007 SCT015 OVC028 5 R-F 46 45 16009 967 96% 41 PAGK AA 27 1353 SCT007 SCT015 OVC034 7 R- 47 45 17013 967 93% 41 PAGK AA 27 1453 SCT007 BKN015 OVC044 7 R- 46 44 15013 969 93% 40 PAGK AA 27 1553 SCT015 BKN039 OVC047 7 R- 46 44 16009 970 93% 41 PAGK AA 27 1653 FEW015 BKN043 OVC055 10 R- 46 44 16010 971 93% 41 PAGK AA 27 1753 FEW015 BKN043 OVC055 10 R- 46 44 16012 972 93% 40 PAGK AA 27 1853 BKN049 BKN080 BKN090 10 47 44 17008 972 89% 43 PAGK AA 27 1953 BKN035 BKN080 BKN095 10 47 44 19006 973 89% 44 PAGK AA 27 2053 FEW035 SCT070 BKN110 10 47 45 21005 973 93% 44 PAGK AP 27 2126 FEW035 SCT070 SCT110 10 46 45 22004 973 96% 44 PAGK AA 27 2153 CLR 10 46 44 22003 974 93% 46 PAGK AA 27 2253 CLR 10 44 41 00000 975 89% 44 PAGK AA 27 2353 CLR 10 38 37 00000 976 96% 38 PAGK AP 28 0033 CLR 1 1/4 F 37 37 01003 976 100% 37 PAGK AP 28 0037 VV001 1/2 F 36 36 00000 976 100% 36 PAGK AP 28 0047 FEW001 1 1/4 F 34 34 00000 977 100% 34 PAGK AP 28 0051 VV001 3/4 F 34 34 00000 977 100% 34 PAGK AA 28 0053 VV001 3/4 F 34 33 00000 977 96% 34 PAGK AP 28 0059 FEW001 1 1/4 F 34 34 00000 976 100% 34 PAGK AP 28 0102 FEW001 3 F 34 34 00000 976 100% 34 PAGK AA 28 0153 CLR 10 32 32 00000 977 100% 32 PAGK AA 28 0253 CLR 10 31 30 00000 978 96% 31 PAGK AA 28 0353 CLR 10 31 30 32003 979 96% 31 PAGK AA 28 0453 CLR 10 30 30 00000 979 100% 30 PAGK AA 28 0553 FEW050 SCT080 SCT160 10 F 34 32 00000 979 92% 34 PAGK AA 28 0653 FEW040 SCT065 SCT110 10 (F) 42 39 00000 980 89% 42 PAGK AP 28 0733 FEW009 SCT050 SCT110 10 45 39 00000 980 79% 45 PAGK AA 28 0753 FEW009 SCT050 SCT110 10 (F) 45 40 00000 980 82% 45
