Still No Snow

With rain and very mild temperatures today (up to 48°F so far), Fairbanks is moving further into uncharted territory in terms of the lack of any wintry weather so far this season.  Today the airport has reported 0.05" of rain and no snow, there's zero snow on the ground, and the temperature seems very likely to stay above freezing through midnight.

Putting aside the lack of snow on earlier dates, there are only two other days in Fairbanks history that meet these conditions at this late date in the autumn: October 23, 1981, and October 28, 2013.  In 1981 several inches of snow had fallen earlier in the month and then melted out; the situation in 2013 was more similar to this year, but even then there had been hints of winter's approach with occasional light snow in both September and October.  Here's my post from late October 2013: http://ak-wx.blogspot.com/2013/10/record-warmth-again.html

Here are some non-wintry webcam views from Fairbanks-land this afternoon.

Cleary Summit (2200' elevation) on the Steese Highway:

UAF's webcam on the West Ridge of campus:

Ester Dome:

In view of the bare ground, an interesting question to ask is, "How cold can it get without snow cover?"  The quick answer is, of course, "Pretty cold"; in December 1934, after the great chinook melted Fairbanks' snow cover, the temperature dropped to -29°F on Christmas Eve with only a trace of snow reported on the ground.

A more comprehensive search for cold conditions with no snow cover is complicated by the fact that Alaska's cooperative observers have often reported zero snow depth in error (instead of new snow amount, for example), and missing snow depth is often recorded as zero.  I did find a couple of interesting examples, though.  Just a couple of years ago (Nov 2016) the Fort Yukon SNOTEL site reported -36°F with a zero-inch snow depth, and the Fort Yukon RAWS saw -34°F the same day.  I don't really trust the snow depth number, however; I suspect there could easily have been an inch or two on the ground.

Perhaps a more credible instance is November 11, 1984, at Chandalar Lake in the Brooks Range, when -33°F was reported with only a trace of snow on the ground.  However, in this case a "trace" may just mean "less than an inch", as preceding conditions suggest there might have been a very thin but continuous snow cover.

I haven't investigated to see what Alaska's lowest reported temperature is with zero snow on the ground - if anyone has an idea, please leave a comment!