Sunday, February 9, 2014

Warm and Cold Spots in 2013

* Updated to add map showing those locations in Alaska that are colder than International Falls, MN.

Several months ago we looked at the locations that most frequently recorded the statewide cold and warm temperatures during 2012. Since practically all of the numbers for 2013 have been received by NCDC, we can now make some maps for 2013. The two maps below show the count for which stations in Alaska were identified as the cold and warm spot respectively for each day of the year in 2013. There is an important difference between these maps and the ones from last year. Knowing that a few cold spot locations are not included in the GHCN database, I manually downloaded the hourly observations for Anaktuvuk Pass, Arctic Village, and Fort Yukon. Unfortunately there was only about 1 month's worth of data for Umiat so it was left out of the analysis. There are surely other stations that could have been included as well.

If two (or more) stations tied for the lowest or warmest temperature for a calendar day, they each received a tally for the day. Of the 284 stations used in the analysis, only 66 had the distinction of being the cold spot in Alaska at least once in 2013. A total of 115 stations were the warm spot in Alaska at least once in 2013.

There are some interesting patterns. For the cold spot, it is almost on the North Slope or at a high elevation site during the summer and in an Interior valley during the winter. For the warm spot, nearly every day in winter it is located in Southeast but in the summer it can be in the Interior or the southern Mainland. As Rick has mentioned, the time of observation at Cooperative stations makes a difference. If the time of observation were standardized, the patterns might not change that much but the tallies certainly would.



9 comments:

  1. On the cold diagram - comparing to a map, is the 32 in the Wrangell mountains the small village of Nabesna? If so then it is amazing how much colder you can get when you are immediately north of a tall mountain at 3000 feet with little chance of a Chinook.

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    1. http://ak-wx.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-cold-spot-in-alaska.html

      Gary

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    2. Eric, the '32' location is Chisana. It is located is a high valley (3,316') near the outlet of the Chisana Glacier. The site is perfectly located to record low temperatures during the summer months in particular. In 2013, they had 29 freezes during the months of June, July, and August.

      http://goo.gl/9dR5hW

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  2. With Chisana being so cold, what is the average annual temp? I'm reminded of International Falls vying for "Icebox of the Nation" and am curious how many Alaskan cities would win that title (are colder than International Falls).

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    1. That's an interesting question Eric. I'll run the numbers later this evening and get back to you. A quick Google search shows that the average annual temperature in International Falls is 37.8°F. Anchorage's annual temperature is about 36°F so my guess is that all of Alaska except for the Panhandle is colder than International Falls.

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    2. I went ahead and added the map at he end of the blog post. Let me know what you think.

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  3. I normally do not cross-promote my super secret FB page on the Deep Cold blog but I added a map showing the locations in Alaska colder than the Nation's Icebox on that page. The picture can be found here: http://goo.gl/Icxa1K

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  4. Perhaps I shouldn't but I get a laugh out of the above Icebox picture. Alaska is really truly the state of extremes. It's going to hit -35ish tonight in Fairbanks and this is quite normal. Kids are playing outside for recess at -20. I watch a news clip on Siberia about -43 temps and I'm like 'Been there. Done that." A couple of cities in the Lower 48 are trying to be cold but Anchorage, which is quite moderate, is even colder. Am I really sane?

    Which Alaskan city is truly the Nation's Icebox?

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    1. Of the 188 stations with published climate normals, Barrow has the lowest annual temperature at 11.5°F.

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