February was the "least warm" month of winter for Alaska as a whole, but it was still warmer than the 1991-2020 average across most of the state's land area. It was especially warm in the west and southwest, and quite warm on the North Slope too:
The obvious difference from December and January was in the Southeast, where February was colder than normal, and quite significantly so in the southern Panhandle. This change occurred because instead of a ridge over western Canada, February saw a trough from the north-central Pacific to southern Canada, and the flow orientation brought cold interior air to southeastern Alaska. November was somewhat similar, with Southeast being colder (relative to normal) than the rest of the state.
For Alaska as a whole, December-February was the 3rd warmest such period in the NCEI climate data history (1925-present); only 2000-01 and 2015-16 were warmer. While unusual warmth was universal across Alaska, it was most pronounced for the Alaska Peninsula and the northwestern Gulf coast. Both Cold Bay and Kodiak had their second warmest Dec-Feb on record (2013-14 and 2014-15 were the warmest at these two sites respectively).
While February didn't mark a dramatic break with earlier warmth in most of the state, the precipitation contrast between January and February could hardly have been greater, as nearly all of the state was drier than normal in February. In southwest and south-central areas the deficit was really unusual; Anchorage saw its driest February on record, and according to Rick Thoman several locations in the Palmer area reported no measurable snow at all. This is really remarkable, following January's onslaught of moisture.
January was so wet that despite February's dryness, large parts of the state were significantly wetter than normal for Dec-Feb overall. According to ERA5 model data, only the North Slope was notably dry, but the NCEI February estimate strongly disagrees on this. Given the paucity of reliable ground-truth winter precipitation data, I would tend to trust ERA5 more, but Utqiaġvik did report over an inch of liquid equivalent, almost enough to be in the top 10 for Dec-Feb precipitation.
As of the end of February, snowpack was very healthy for monitored areas in the western and northern interior, but major deficits are evident in South-Central. The Iditarod start was moved to Fairbanks for the 4th time (other years 2003, 2015, 2017).
ERA5 snow data shows a similar north-south contrast in snowpack fortunes:
The lack of snow in southern areas increases the risk of early season wildfires, and that has been reflected in the fire potential outlook:
Burn permits will be required beginning just one week from now across southern Alaska:
Finally, I'll close with ERA5's estimate that the Dec-Feb season was much windier than normal across the northern half of Alaska (see below). This is broadly consistent with the warmth, as winds tend to mix out the surface-based inversion that is associated with valley-level cold; but the relationship is quite weak and is very elevation-dependent. See here for some previous results on the temperature-wind correlation in the model data:
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