Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Near-Normal Precipitation
After the wettest November since 1970, and the fifth wettest of record, year-to-date precipitation in Fairbanks is now only slightly below-normal for the year; the summer's rainfall deficit has been almost made up by the wet conditions in early fall and the recent snow (and rain). As shown in the chart below, the running total as of the end of November was 9.87", compared to a long-term mean of 10.33" for the 11-month period. The long-term median for the same period is 10.01" - slightly lower because the distribution is slightly positively skewed - and so this year's total to-date is indeed very close to normal.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
What I find amazing is that the sibling chart of snow depth (at climate.gi.alaska.edu) has Fairbanks at normal levels.
ReplyDeleteEric, Interesting, indeed. As an aside, it appears the graphics on the ACRC site are using the 1971-2000 normals rather than 1981-2010. The normals for snow and snow depth are lower in the 1981-2010 period.
DeleteEric, I have noticed the same thing. Even though Fairbanks has been behind on their season-to-date snowfall for most of the last 10 years, the snow depth seems to hover near normal. I've been meaning to do a post about this.
ReplyDelete