A Brief Chill in Barrow

Clear skies and offshore flow at Barrow allowed temperatures to briefly drop quite low for the time of year in the early morning hours of yesterday.  The temperature dropped to 6 °F before clouds and snow reappeared; the temperature was back up to 31 °F by late afternoon.

The low of 6 °F is the coldest so early in the season for Barrow since 1985, when 3 °F was observed on the same date.  The earliest that 0 °F has been observed is October 3.

The chart below show that temperatures have been close to normal in Barrow since mid-August, but were frequently much above normal throughout the early and middle summer.  The June-August average temperature was the sixth warmest on record, and 2013 was the fifth consecutive summer that was warmer than the 1981-2010 average.