The middle Tanana River valley broke out of the chilly mid-autumn weather yesterday, with southerly flow bringing warmth across the Alaska Range and producing downslope warming in the lee of the mountains. Fairbanks airport reached 58°F, which is the highest temperature in October in five years, and the warmest this late in the season since 2006. Approaching 60°F is rare after the first few days of the month in Fairbanks.
Here are yesterday's maximum temperatures around the region (click to enlarge). Note how much colder it was to the north of the Yukon-Tanana uplands; low-level cold air is already hard to displace at this date in the Yukon Flats.
The burst of warmth in Fairbanks marked a sharp contrast to an unusual chill in the closing days of September; last Sunday's high temperature of 35°F was the coldest September day in four years.
Despite the warmth yesterday, the SNOTEL instruments in the hills above Fairbanks report that there is still some snow on the ground; snow water equivalent values range from 0.2 inches to 2.0 inches, depending on elevation. As usual, Munson Ridge leads the way and is above the seasonal normal.
In the 15 years with at least 5 sites reporting snow data in the Chena River basin (2011-present), only 4 other years had snow on the ground at all locations as of October 5, so it's a little bit unusual. Those years were 2014, 2015, 2019, and 2021.
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