Monday, January 5, 2015

Cold At Last

The coldest weather of the season arrived for much of interior Alaska over the weekend, and this morning the COOP site at Chicken reached -50 °F.  As far as I'm aware, this was the first observed -50 °F temperature in the state this winter.  This depth of winter cold is typically reached by mid-December somewhere in the state (1950-2013 median December 6, 1976-2013 median December 14).  Other chilly readings from today include:

-44F  Bettles SNOTEL
-43F  Fort Yukon RAWS
-41F  Tok AKTAS RAWS
-38F  Northway
-36F  Ruby 44ESE CRN

It's interesting to note that in 17 winters of reasonably complete data, the Chicken COOP has never failed to reach -50 °F at some point.  The median for lowest winter temperature is -63 °F, and this even beats Alaska's winter pole of cold, Umiat (median of -59 °F).  In this connection I'll refer back to a classic post by Rick concerning the coldest spot in the state:

http://ak-wx.blogspot.com/2012/11/where-is-coldest-place-in-alaska.html

The coldest so far today at Fairbanks airport is -30 °F, and the daily high will probably be -22 °F, making this the first substantially (more than 1 standard deviation) colder than normal day since early October.

It took a long time, but the Tanana River at Nenana finally appears to be completely frozen over today; open water was still visible from the Ice Classic webcam just a couple of days ago.


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3 comments:

  1. NL7YJanuary 5, 2015 at 10:56 PM

    A request please.

    Glenallen can be a cold place that's separated yet may parallel Fairbanks to some degree for temperatures during cold spells. Could you offer a Blog at some time of the two locations and their comparative temperature history?

    Gary

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    1. Richard JamesJanuary 6, 2015 at 8:55 AM

      Gary, I'll be glad to look at it soon. There is a long history of temperature data from Gulkana airport that should be suitable for the comparison.

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    2. NL7YJanuary 7, 2015 at 8:34 PM

      It's not critical Richard, but I've wondered for years why that area is singularly cold like Fairbanks. I can see elevation and drainage advection (like Chisana, Northway, and Chicken) having an effect on temperatures. But Gulkana/Glenallen appear somewhat unique.

      I worked for someone that lived there right after Statehood and the comment was it was often a cold spot in winter.

      Gary

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