Autumnal Air

Snow fell in the Brooks Range yesterday as cooler air worked its way down from the Arctic, and temperatures this morning are close to freezing at a number of interior locations farther north than Fairbanks.

At Barrow, the mean temperature yesterday was 32 °F, the first time this has happened since late June; 55 consecutive days had a mean temperature above freezing.  The chart below shows the annual (maximum) number of consecutive days with mean temperature above freezing in Barrow for each year since 1930.  This year's maximum of 55 days is lower than in some recent years, when the mean temperature did not dip to freezing until mid or even late September, but is higher than the long-term median.