Wet, windy warm front sweeps Southeast Alaska

It’s not often that the warmest time of the day is early in the morning, but that was the surprising fact at many locations in Alaska’s panhandle today. A small but potent low with a defined push of warm air on its eastern flank (the warm front) moved north last night and during the early […]

Heavy roof snow loads

There has been a lot of snow this winter in many parts of Alaska. Here are some maps of snow depth from the Alaska River Forecast Center. Keep in mind many are from remote automated stations, some at high elevation. Fairbanks and other parts of the interior were hit hard over the Christmas holiday with […]

Early season 100+ mph storm in Southeast AK

Southeast Alaska was hit hard Friday night, October 1st, 2021. High wind, heavy rain throughout, and, at quite a few locations, thunderstorms and even hail. Fortunately, in most places the worst was relatively short-lived. The storm was a potent one for the first of October. I’ll do the usual play-by-play and statistics, then examine a […]

Alaska weather on a wild roller coaster

We’ve been on this roller coaster before, but recent heat in southern Southeast Alaska took us to new heights. Sunday, January 14th saw many records broken around SE including a new record high for any January temperature in any place in Alaska with reliable records. The new record of 66 F (18.7 C) was set […]

Precipitation patterns & perceptions

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 […]

Not the last great Alaska snow race

Today is the start of the world famous Iditarod trail sled dog race (“the last great race”), so I thought maybe I should give an report on another (unofficial) great race: the Alaska snow race. It has been a very snowy winter in many parts of Alaska and there is plenty of talk and a […]