An Unexpected Snow

A quick couple inches of snow this morning in parts of Fairbanks-land, though from North Pole southward there was very little. Webcam photo from the Alaska Climate Research Center on UAF West Ridge from around noon with the sun poking through the clouds.

Spring up North

It's been a cold March on the North Slope: though Monday the average monthly temperature at Barrow was about 9 degrees below normal. And this morning continues that trend. Here's a photo from Barrow (UAF Sea Ice webcam), with the school bus trundling along through a brisk -29F morning. Elsewhere on the Slope (through 7am ADT), lows include 43 below at Nuiqsut and Umiat, 42 below at Deadhorse Airport and 37 below at Atqasuk.

Temperature Anomolies

With more seasonable temperatures in place now, here's an update of the standardized daily anomalies this winter for Keystone Ridge through Friday. What a see-saw season it's been.

Winter Lives, Sort Of

A fresh injection of cold air sent temperatures falling in Fairbanks-land overnight, and in valley where the wind dropped off it was kind of like winter. Lows included:

Goldstream Creek: 24 below
Fort wainwright RAWS: 23 below
Eielson AFB: 17 below

Elsewhere in the Interior:
Beaver Creek RAWS: 30 below
Eagle Coop: 28 below
Toklat RAWS: 24 below

(Image from Arctic Village, 925am Wednesday, courtesy of the FAA)

Solar Spring is Here

Here's a plot of daily high temperatures over the past five weeks at Fairbanks Airport (475 feet MSL) and Keystone Ridge (1600' MSL). The green line is the difference between the two (Airport minus Ridge). Up through late February, high temperatures were consistently lower at the Airport than on the Ridge. Since the end of February, the rapidly increasing solar insolation is breaking the nocturnal temperature inversion almost every day now, and this is a useful definition of spring in Interior Alaska.

Still Chilly on the Slope

It's been a cold week on the North Slope. Lows Thursday morning include:

Nuiqsut: -47F
Umiat: -47F
Sagwon SnoTel: -46F
Deadhorse Airport: -45F
Ikpikpuk River: -45F
Otuk Creek: -44F
Camden Bay: -41F

Swinging Temperature Update

Here's an update showing mean daily temperatures and standardized departures for Fairbanks since October 1st. The alternating cycle of warm-cold looks to continue.

Nippy on the North Slope

Temperatures are in the 40s below on parts of the North Slope Saturday morning, along with a fresh breeze in some places. At 8am AST,

Nuiqsut: -48F, south wind 9 mph
Alpine: -45F, south wind 9 mph
Deadhorse: -45F, southwest wind 13 mph

While plenty cold, this is not all that unusual this time of year for the North Slope.

Photo from Umiat at 8am, at a brisk -43F.

Snow update

This photo gives an idea of the snowfall here in the past 36 hours.

Through 9am Wednesday, 23.1 inches of snow here at Keystone Ridge since 6pm Monday. The maximum 24 hour total was 18.7 inches, 10pm Monday to 10pm Tuesday, by far the highest 24 hour amount in the 16 years here on the hill. This also pushes the seasonal total up over 100 inches.

Other event total snowfalls include

14 Mile Chena Hot Springs Road: 14.9"
Goldstream Creek: 13.5"
College Hills 12.5"
UAF West Ridge: 11.0"
Woodsmoke 8.6" (through 10pm Tuesday)
Fairbanks Airport: 8.6" (through midnight Tuesday night)

I'll update as more observations arrive.

Snow update

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK
844 PM AKST TUE MAR 6 2012

...HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OF THE WINTER IN FAIRBANKS...

FAIRBANKS RECEIVED ITS HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OF THE SEASON SO FAR
YESTERDAY AND TODAY. AS OF 3PM TUESDAY...FAIRBANKS INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT RECEIVED AN OFFICIAL STORM TOTAL OF 7.4 INCHES OVER THE
COURSE OF LESS THAN 24 HOURS...AND THE SNOW HAS BEEN CONTINUING TO
FALL THROUGHOUT THE EVENING.

HERE ARE A FEW STORM TOTALS SO FAR FROM SPOTTERS AROUND THE AREA
AS OF 8PM:

KEYSTONE RIDGE........................16.6 INCHES
14 MILE CHENA HOT SPRINGS ROAD........11.3 INCHES
GOLDSTREAM CREEK......................10.8 INCHES
COLLEGE HILLS..........................9.9 INCHES
UAF WEST RIDGE.........................9.1 INCHES
HAMILTON ACRES.........................8.5 INCHES
WOODSMOKE/NORTH POLE...................7.7 INCHES

SNOW SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT WITH ANOTHER 1 TO 3
INCHES EXPECTED THROUGH 9AM WEDNESDAY. SNOW IS EXPECTED TO TAPER OFF TO
FLURRIES BY MID MORNING WEDNESDAY.

$$

JM

Snow Update

As of 6pm AST Tuesday, there has been 15.6" of snow since 6pm Monday here at Keystone Ridge. This is the greatest 24 hour snow total in the 16 years of obs here. Occasional gusty winds, but no significant drifting today, even in open areas. Snow occasionally blowing off of trees in exposed areas. That's a lot of shoveling.

Chamber of Commerce Day in Barrow

Lovely early spring day in Barrow: sunny, 19 below, west wind 10 mph. Image courtesy of the UAF Sea Ice Group.

Fluff Storm

Powdery snow overnight in Fairbanks-land

So far, amounts include
Keystone Ridge: 9.8"
UAF West Ridge: 6.2"
Goldstream Creek: 5.0"

All these locations have snow-liquid ratios of 20-30 to one, which is very high for around a quarter inch of liquid.

Big Snowfall Differences

Here's a plot of cumulative seasonal snowfall (through March 03) for Keystone Ridge and the Fairbanks Airport. The snowfall on the ridge is close to normal; the airport is only about 77% of normal. This is the biggest difference between the two sites in the 16 years of observations on the Ridge. The NRCS snow course data for March 1st is dribbling in, and shows that the below normal snowfall is confined to an area from Fairbanks eastward into the upper Chena and Salcha Basins, while north and west of Fairbanks, snowfall is close to or even a bit above normal.

Same Old Story

Here's the standardized daily temperature departures for Keystone Ridge for this winter. The pattern continues.

Winter 2011-2012

Here's another chart of the roller coaster temperatures in Fairbanks winter 2011-2012.

February Summary

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FAIRBANKS AK
159 AM AKST THU MAR 1 2012

...MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR FAIRBANKS ALASKA...

IN A DRAMATIC TURN AROUND FROM JANUARY...FAIRBANKS TEMPERATURES
IN FEBRUARY WERE PERSISTENTLY MILDER THAN NORMAL. HALF
THE DAYS DURING THE MONTH HAD AN AVERAGE DAILY TEMPERATURE
10 DEGREES OR MORE ABOVE NORMAL...WHILE ONLY THREE DAYS WERE 10 OR
MORE DEGREES COLDER THAN NORMAL. THIS WAS THE MILDEST FEBRUARY IN
FAIRBANKS SINCE 2002.

OVERALL..THE AVERAGE HIGH TEMPERATURE AT THE FAIRBANKS AIRPORT WAS
17 ABOVE AND THE AVERAGE LOW WAS 5 BELOW. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE
FOR THE MONTH OF 5.9 ABOVE WAS 7.2 DEGREES WARMER THAN
NORMAL...AND A WHOPPING 32.7 DEGREES WARMER THAN THAN AVERAGE
TEMPERATURE IN JANUARY. ONLY ONCE...IN 1934...WAS A JANUARY TO
FEBRUARY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE INCREASE GREATER THAN THIS YEAR.

THE HIGH TEMPERATURE IN FEBRUARY AT THE AIRPORT WAS 31 DEGREES ON
THE 5TH AND THE LOW OF 35 BELOW OCCURRED ON THE 1ST. TEMPERATURES
DID CREEP A BIT ABOVE FREEZING IN PARTS OF THE AREA...ESPECIALLY
ON THE 9TH AND 10TH...INCLUDING 35 DEGREES AT NORTH POLE AND
37 DEGREES AT UAF WEST RIDGE.

SNOWFALL WAS NEAR NORMAL IN FEBRUARY...WITH 7.5 INCHES AT THE
AIRPORT. THIS MELTED DOWN TO 0.42 INCHES OF WATER...WHICH IS
EXACTLY NORMAL. SNOW DEPTHS VARIED THROUGH THE MONTH BETWEEN 18
AND 21 INCHES.

WINDS WERE CHARACTERISTICALLY LIGHT AT THE AIRPORT...AVERAGING
ONLY 2.3 MPH. THE PEAK WIND OF 23 MPH OCCURRED ON THE 2ND.

FOR THE MID-WINTER PERIOD...DECEMBER THROUGH FEBRUARY...LARGE
TEMPERATURE SWINGS WERE THE RULE...WHICH ALMOST COMPLETELY
BALANCED OUT. THE FIRST THREE WEEKS OF DECEMBER WERE THE WARMEST
OF RECORD. THE LAST DAYS OF DECEMBER UNTIL THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY
WERE CONSISTENTLY QUITE COLD...FOLLOWED BY MILD WEATHER MOST OF
FEBRUARY. THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR THE THREE MONTHS AT THE
AIRPORT OF MINUS 5.9 DEGREES WAS ABOUT 1.5 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL.
SNOWFALL FOR THE THREE MONTHS WAS VERY CLOSE TO NORMAL...BUT FOR
THE SEASON THE TOTAL SNOW OF 42.7 INCHES IS MORE THAN A FOOT BELOW
NORMAL DUE TO THE LOW SNOWFALL IN THE AUTUMN.

LOOKING AHEAD TO MARCH...RAPIDLY INCREASING SUNSHINE HELPS BOAST
TEMPERATURES. AVERAGE DAILY HIGH TEMPERATURES INCREASE FROM
18 DEGREES ON THE 1ST TO 34 DEGREES ON THE 31ST. AVERAGE LOW
TEMPERATURES INCREASE FROM 9 BELOW ON THE 1ST TO 8 ABOVE ON THE
31ST. IN THE PAST 105 YEARS...TEMPERATURES HAVE RANGED FROM A HIGH
OF 56 DEGREES IN 1994 TO A LOW OF 56 BELOW IN 1911. SNOWFALL IS
TYPICALLY LIGHT...AVERAGING LESS THAN 5 INCHES...AND HAS EXCEEDED
A FOOT ONLY TWICE IN THE PAST 40 YEARS. POSSIBLE SUNSHINE
INCREASES FROM JUST OVER 10 HOURS ON THE FIRST TO 13 AND ONE HALF
HOURS ON THE 31ST. THE FORECAST FOR MARCH FROM NOAA'S CLIMATE
PREDICTION CENTER CALLS FOR AN INCREASED CHANCE OF SIGNIFICANTLY
BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR FAIRBANKS.