Alaska Weather Blog and Alaska Weather Store
Oftentimes the most interesting weather situations are from small-scale storms or processes. In this blog we’ll examine one such feature that produced some impressive winds in the northern part of Alaska’s panhandle.
Thirteen days in a row with highs in the 70s F (21-26 C) (but not hotter) in southeast Alaska is quite notable. This is what just ended in Haines, and close to it in Petersburg and Wrangell. This graph shows the nice consistent dirunal (day-night) pattern of clear weather at Haines. (The data is from the airport, where on the 20th it did not quite make it to 70, but it did at the slightly warmer climate station, so that’s where the 13 days is).
After a couple very mild winters this one is feeling different. Northern southeast Alaska has been cold and windy virtually all November while farther south things have been close to normal or a little below. The wind graph for November in Skagway shown below is very telling of the strong outflow winds that have brought […]
We’ve had some warm days lately in northern Southeast Alaska, and if perception is worth anything, it always feels warmer just coming off winter. Actually much of Alaska feels this surge of warmth in May (and sometimes in April), but it is a time of the year when southeast can keep up with the interior […]
Of all the weather elements, precipitation seems the most chaotic when it comes to spatial and temporal patterns. In reality, I think wind is probably more variable over both time and distance, but I guess we must understand that, since we don’t talk about it nearly as much as peculiar precipitation patterns such as long […]
You’ve heard it said…Alaska has sooo much coastline… We do, about 34,000 miles (54,700 km) worth, and we have the perfect weather phenomenon to go with it: the sea breeze. The sea breeze is a local wind blowing from water to land arising from the relative warmth of the land vs. the water. Warmer land […]
Back into the freezer The strong “January thaw” that pushed well into the interior and tied the all time January record for Alaska is being pushed toward the back of our memories by seasonal and colder weather. Boy, it feels colder after a long warm spell! Wind chills here in northern Southeast Alaska are bouncing […]
Dry cold, wet cold? no. Winter cold and summer cold? no. Bitterly cold vs extremely cold? no. Calm vs windy cold? close. All these would make good blog subjects, but what I’m thinking about today is domestic cold vs imported cold. Seriously. I have a good recent example.
Alaska is a big place, and the weather system affecting our state right now is even bigger, but I’m going to show you that is it the small scale that counts when it comes to winds of the south and southeast coasts. As I write this, virtually the whole state is under the influence of […]
By the time we get to June, we expect the weather to settle down a bit…even here in Alaska. But weather would be boring if it were not for a few surprises now and then. Skagway was sucker-punched this day with a sharp front featuring wind gusts up to 52 mph (22 m/s) and a […]