Bering Sea Cold

Alaska's west coast and southwestern peninsula have been remarkably chilly in the past couple of days - the coldest in many years for this date on the calendar.

But before I get into details on that, it's worth noting that the Fairbanks NWS office has issued 4 severe thunderstorm warnings (so far) today: one early this afternoon to the east of Fairbanks, and then 3 more for severe storms west of Nenana and up towards Manley Hot Springs.  Historically, many years pass with less than 4 severe thunderstorm warnings issued for the whole summer in the Fairbanks office.  Here's a photo taken around 4:20pm from UAF, courtesy of the NWS via X/Twitter:

A very strong and cold upper-level trough to the west and south provides part of the explanation for the stormy weather: there is unusually strong convective instability caused by the cold air aloft. 

The trough has also produced extremely chilly conditions for the Bering Sea and southwestern Alaska yesterday and today.  Bethel's high temperature was only 40°F yesterday, and snow was observed briefly in the morning.  Bethel hasn't seen a daily high temperature that low in June since 1972.  Similarly, yesterday's high in Cold Bay was only 39°F - again with some snow - the coldest this late in the spring since 1985.

Out in the Bering Sea, St Paul Island reported several lengthy periods of light snow earlier today, with visibility down to 1.5 miles and the temperature hovering at or just below freezing.  The FAA webcam showed some accumulation, as illustrated below:

Remarkably, this morning's balloon sounding from St Paul Island reported a temperature of -9.7°C at 850mb, which is the lowest this late in the season since 1985.  This is about the same as the normal 850mb temperature in January.

The unseasonable cold is related to a suddenly very intense negative phase of the PDO.  Check out the SST anomaly pattern across the North Pacific: extreme warmth extends eastward from Japan, but the Bering Sea has become much colder than normal.

The daily PDO index managed to reach -3.0 for the first time since September 2012, and it's only the second time it's happened in the history of daily data since 1982.

What's driving the anomaly?  Well, the negative PDO regime has been more or less locked in for several years now; but the current amplification is happening as the perennial North Pacific ridge has joined forces with Arctic high pressure via a ridge over eastern Russia, allowing the Bering Sea trough to deepen and intensify.  As for the Arctic ridging, it's a "blocking pattern" that's conducive to extremes at lower latitudes - for example, flooding in central Europe a couple of days ago, and snow in upland Scotland yesterday.