The King Of Tough Winters Outdid Itself This Year. Fairbanks, Alaska Endured Most Extreme Chill In 60 Years.

A scene from Fairbanks, Alaska, this past
winter. Yeah, they're crazy up there.
This past winter, and through March
so far, has been among the coldest
on record there. This in a city that's'
already insanely cold in the winter,

Alaska winters are always more challenging than they are in most of the Lower 48, and this winter has really made Alaskans suffer. 

If you wanted a frigid endurance test this winter, Fairbanks was your city. 

Fairbanks is pretty much right in the middle of Alaska. Frigid air settles in there, and it gets to 40 below most winters. Sometimes 50 below. One time, in 1934, it was 66 below in Fairbanks. 

Obviously, it takes a special breed to live there. This winter, I imagine some members of that special breed want to call it quits on Fairbanks. The intense cold was just unrelenting. 

THE STATS

December was a whopping 18.5 degrees colder than average, with a mean temperature of, ugh, 22.8 below. People in Fairbanks woke up to 12 days in the minus 40s that month. 

January was a welcome "break" for Fairbanks as it was only 6.1 degrees colder than average with a mean temperature of minus 14.4. It did get down to minus 50 on January 4 though. That day had a lovely high temperature of 46 below. 

February also wasn't super cold, either, at least by Fairbanks standards. However, February was also the wettest and second snowiest February on record in Fairbanks, with 38.7 inches of snow. Precipitation melted down amounted to 2.53 inches. 

All sorts of records and near-records were set with this intense Fairbanks winter, according to the National Weather Service office there, which released this statement:.

"With Fairbanks having record 52 days at or below -30F;  31 days at or below -40F and 66 days where temperatures did not get above 0F, the average temperature from December 1st through March 22nd sits at -14.7 degrees. This marks the 2nd coldest ever such period in Fairbanks history since 1904, the coldets the interior (central Alaska) has seen in 60 years (since 1966) showing just how cold not only this winter has been but alls the start of spring."

Those 31 days at or below minus 40 is the fourth most on record. 

Tuesday was also the 144th day in a row that stayed below freezing. That's the second longest such stretch on record and the longest since the winter of 1971-72.

Fairbanks is usually a very dry place in the winter. When extreme cold settles in, it's even drier, with very little snow during the course of the season. Not this winter. The heavy snow in February was just part of the story. 

Fairbanks has had 92.6 inches of snow so far this season, a respectable 12th  most on record. The deepest snow depth this winter was 38 inches. which is the 14th deepest on record. 

Warmer times are coming to Fairbanks, finally. By next week, high temperatures should be in the low 30s with lows in the single digits. That might seem horrible for April, but for Fairbanks, that's exactly average for this time of year.  

OTHER CITIES AND BUCKING A TREND

Other Alaskan cities have had a tough go of it, too. 

Juneau, Alaska endured 82 inches of inches of snow during December, nearly 50 inches of it in the final five days of the month. over just a week or so in late December. Juneau reached a new snowy milestone this week,   Snowfall for the season there reached a whopping 201.2 inches, the most on record. 

Anchorage, Alaska has had at least 20 inches of snow on the ground since January 27. This month, through Wednesday, March 24 is running 13.1 degrees colder than normal. Through Wednesday, it hadn't been above freezing since February 6, 

Normal high temperature in Anchorage this time of year are in the mid-30s, and the city usually has a handful of above freezing temperatures every month of the year.  It's finally forecast to get above freezing in Anchorage Sunday or Monday.

 This winter has been an anomaly in Alaska. Under the sinister spell of climate change, pPaces closer to the North Pole have been warming much faster than mid-latitudes under. The period from December 1 to March 22 this year is the second coldest on record.

Last year, in 2024-25, that same period was the absolute warmest on record in Fairbanks. Anchorage also had an unusually warm winter in 2024-25

Juneau, Alaska, Buried In December Snow, Now Faces Rain, Flooding, Avalanches

A bus makes its way through a flooded street in 
Juneau, Alaska. After unprecedented snows, it's
been raining in Juneau, causing flooding, 
avalanches and other trouble in the 
weather-beleaguered city

In December, Juneau, Alaska was buried under more than 80 inches of snow, capsizing boats in the harbor, caving in roofs and blocking streets. 

Now, after some more snow, it's raining up there in Juneau. Now we have an even bigger mess.

Juneau sometimes gets heavy snow and downpours of rain during the winter as storms and atmospheric rivers come in off the Pacific Ocean. 

But the extremes of the past few weeks is totally off the charts compared to what Juneau has experience in the past 

"These are unprecedented times," said Aaron Jacobs, the senior hydrologist at the National Weather Service office in Juneau.  "The amount of snowpack that we are seeing on the ground at the airport, and then this massive warm-up we're seeing, really hasn't been seen in the climate records."

After four additional inches of snow fell on Juneau Friday, the precipitation switched over to rain. The city received 1.58 inches of precipitation that day. Areas around Juneau receive up to eight inches of snow and two inches of rain.  

On Friday and over this weekend, the rain/snow line crept up the steep slopes of the mountains. The higher up the slopes the rain gets, the greater the avalanche risk.

As KTOO reported:

"John Bressette, the city's new avalanche advisor, said multiple avalanches happened on Mount Juneau on known slide paths including White Pass, Chop Gully near Flume Train and above Behrends Avenue. He said he doesn't know exactly how many occurred, but that it's somewhere in the double-digits." 

People in avalanche prone areas in and near Juneau were urged to be ready to leave at the drop of a hat due to the avalanche worries. 

An emergency warming shelter was moved from a converted warehouse to an elementary school Friday due to the avalanche risk. By Sunday, emergency managers deemed that the avalanche risk had diminished, so they moved the shelter back to the warehouse.  There could be avalanches in that areas, but they wouldn't be strong enough to reach the shelter. 

Some avalanches did crash down the steep slopes above Juneau, but none hit populated areas. 

The shelters are open in large part because the weight of the snow, plus the rain water soaking into that snow, is threatening the stability of many roofs in and around Juneau. 

About sixty people were on the roof of the Bartlett Regional Hospital Saturday trying to remove snow because roof loads were nearing capacity, reports KTOO.

The snow-clogged storm drains and ditches in Juneau were no match for the rain and the snow melt. Streets flooded, and water began to seep into basements across the city. 

Another rain storm was set to hit Juneau and the rest of southeast Alaska last night and this morning. A more powerful storm set to hit Tuesday night has prompted a flood watch for southeast Alaska, especially south of Juneau. To add insult to injury, a  high wind watch is also up for Tuesday night and Wednesday for pretty much the entire Alaska Panhandle. 

Video: An avalanche is seen crashing down a steep slope in Juneau on Friday. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

 

Extreme Cold, Snow Hits Alaska, Northwest Canada

While we in Vermont endured the second coldest December in a quarter century, things were even worse - much worse - in Alaska and large swaths of northern Canada. 

Lovely weather for swimsuits in 
Fairbanks, Alaska.  There's a "40 below"
club in Fairbanks in which people pose
in swimsuits near this sign when it gets
to 40 below or colder. 

Fairbanks, Alaska endured its coldest December since 1980. Winters in Fairbanks and the rest of interior Alaska are absolutely brutal to begin with. But last month was ridiculous, at least by modern day, climate changed standards.

The average temperature for December in Fairbank was minus 22.8 degrees, which is a whipping 18.5 degrees colder than their already miserably frigid normal. It got as cold as 48 below on December 27 and 28  the coldest it's been in Fairbanks since 2012. 

Fairbanks might set a record for most consecutive days in which the low temperature was 15 below or colder. The current record is 38 days.  As of January 2, they were up to 29 days. 

The annual New Year's Eve fireworks show in Fairbanks was canceled due to the extreme chill. As the clock struck midnight in Fairbanks last night, the temperature was a thoroughly unpleasant 44 below. Even if they had launched the fireworks, it would have been hard to see them. Visibility was a half mile in freezing fog. 

By noon local time on January 1, it was still 44 below in Fairbanks.

As Rick Thoman noted on Substack, the remarkable part of the cold wave in northwest North America is the duration, even more than the low temperatures   He noted that through the first 26 days of December, parts of the Yukon were running an incredible 36 degrees (F) below normal. 

The intense cold in interior Alaska also covers northwestern Alaska. In Yukon, Canada, the temperature got as low as 68 below, the coldest it's been in Canada in 50 years. 

Earlier in December, Yukon Energy said the territory's power grid has been under significant strain as people try to stay warm. Demand reached 90 percent of availability supply. 

A break in the frigid conditions in at least parts of northwestern Canada seems to be finally looming. Whitehorse, Yukon, could finally see a day with no subzero temperatures toward Friday. Readings could actually climb into the low 20s above zero in about a week. 

Fairbanks, Alaska is expected a break of sorts, too. It'll get worse before it gets better with lows in the 50s below in Fairbanks and through much of interior Alaska. The coldest spots could hit 60 below.

Believe it or not, this isn't as cold as it can possibly get in Fairbanks. The most intense cold wave on record there was on January 13-15, 1934, when the daily low temperatures were minus 65, minus 66 and minus 64. The coldest of those three days remains the chilliest on record in Fairbanks. 

The current interior Alaska icebox regime is destined to finally ease in a few days. 

Instead of temperatures in the 40s below, in about a weeks time, that city is expected balmy readings in the single numbers and teens below zero. Which is more or less normal for them for this time of year. 

 JUNEAU SNOW

Four feet of snow fell in Juneau, 
Alaska in the final four days of the month,
The weight of the snow sank boats in
Juneau Harbor. More than 80 inches
of snow fell there in December. 

Much further south in Alaska, Juneau had 82 inches of snow in December,  Normal snowfall for December in Juneau is 18 inches. 

More than half of the month's total - 49 inches - fell in the final five days of December.  The snow is so heavy that it has sunk numerous boats in Juneau's harbor and threatens to collapse roofs on houses and other buildings.

At least eight boats had sunk in the harbor as of midday Wednesday, the Juneau Independent reported. Dozens of other boats were saved when harbor crew and boat owners got to the harbor on time to clean snow off the vessels

December was also frigid by Juneau standards. The average temperature for the month was 17.9 degrees, more than 12 degrees colder than average, 

The Juneau snow won't disappear anytime soon. The National Weather Service calls for temperatures in the teens through Sunday in Juneau, then more snow. 

In fact snow is expected in the region every day in the  of upcoming week It could mix with or change to rain late in the week around Juneau, which I imagine will turn things even messier.  

Trump Denies Disaster Assistance To Blue States, Including Vermont; Send Money To Red States

Damage in Sutton, Vermont after flooding this July. 
President Donald Trump rejected a disaster declaration
for the Northeast Kingdom, likely over politics.

 We've got some more likely evidence that everything Donald Trump does is transactional. And some of the latest news involves us here in Vermont.  

Here's the news, straight from the Associated Press:

"President Donald Trump approved major disaster declarations for Alaska, Nebraska, North Dakota and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa late Wednesday, while denying requests from Vermont, Illinois and Maryland and leaving other states still waiting for answers.

The decisions fell mostly along party lines, with Trump touting on social media Wednesday that he had 'won big' in Alaska in the last three presidential elections and that it was his 'honor' to deliver to the 'incredible Patriots' of Missouri, a state he also won three times."

Trump just cannot keep his mouth shut. 

If he hadn't bragged like he always does, he'd have plausible deniability about him picking favorites.  

Trump has approved more disaster declarations than he's thrown away. But he keeps talking about phasing out FEMA, saying he wants states to take the lead in disasters, 

The Vermont piece of this was for July 10 flash flooding in the Northeast Kingdom. State officials waited more than nine weeks for Trump's negative decision. Damages far exceed what some of the affected little towns up there in the NEK can afford, said Eric Forand, the Vermont Emergency Management Director. 

The flood caused more than $1 million just in the town of Sutton, which has a population of only around 200. Across Vermont the July 10 storm caused almost $2 million in damage. The minimum threshold to qualify for federal aid should have been $1.2 million, reports WPTZ.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott said his administration won't appeal the decision. "When submitting the request we knew that there was a chance it could be denied - and we do not plan to appeal the decision... Moving forward, we'll explore ways to support rural communities with limited resources and what assistance could look like."

Scott is a Republican, but a moderate who, unlike most members of the GOP, has expressed no fealty to Trump and criticizes him at times. Vermont is also known to be among the bluest of blue states. 

In recent public opinion polls, Vermont ranks second behind Hawaii as the least supportive of Trump. Only 24 percent of Vermonters approve of Trump versus 72 percent who oppose him. 

In deciding not to appeal, Scott probably looked at Maryland as an example of what could happen if he did go ahead with asking again. 

Maryland, also a decisively blue state, requested a disaster declaration for two counties in the western part of the state that suffered significant flooding. In July, Maryland requested a disaster declaration, but Trump turned it town. Maryland appealed that decision, because the counties suffered $33.7 million in damage, three times its threshold for federal assistance, reports the AP.

Trump this week turned down that appeal. 

"President Trump and his administration have politicized disaster relief, and our communities are the ones who pay the price," said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat.

White House officials are trying to portray the denials as heroic efforts to save taxpayers money and mot the partisan attacks that the probably are.

"President Trump provides a more thorough review of disaster declaration requests than any Administration before him," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. 

Yeah, right. 

But she went on, saying Trump was "ensuring American tax dollars are uses appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement - not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters."

Sure, because the tiny town of Sutton, Vermont  has a million dollars lying around their town offices to fix the flood damage. 

By the way, I can't begrudge anybody who did receive disaster assistance. They need it. Particularly in western Alaska, which was hit earlier this month by a record strong former typhoon that produced a destructive and deadly storm surge. 

But if you live in a blue state, and you're hit with a hurricane, tornado, wildfire, flood or something dramatic like that, remember that Trump wants you to use those experiences to love him, or else.

Like that's going to happen. 

I'll have a separate piece coming up about how the federal government is shortchanging major disaster zones like western North Carolina, which was devastated by Hurricane Helene last year.  

DOGE Cuts Turned Devastating, Deadly Alaska Storm Into A Surprise, Leaving Some Unprepared

Destruction in western Alaska due to the severe
storm that hit over the weekend. Forecasting for
the storm appears to be substandard because
of cutbacks in funding and staffing for the 
National Weather Service

The horrible storm that caused at least one death and intense destruction in parts of western Alaska was forecasted inaccurately, due to DOGE cuts orchestrated by Elon Musk and the Trump administration, according to a CNN report. 

The bulk of the storm struck an area south of where computer models suggested it would. The models were apparently off because of a lack of good data. 

So-called Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE cutbacks meant some weather balloon launches were scrubbed for lack of funding. 

Per CNN:

"Weather balloon, which are typically launched twice a day, provide crucial information on wind speed and direction, air temperature, humidity, and other measurements. Balloon data is fed directly into sophisticated models used to predict the weather. 

However, there were few, if any, balloons to take measurements of what the weather was doing as the remains of Typhoon Halong approached Alaska late last week." 

Likely because of the lack of the balloon data, computer models had the storm striking the area around the Bering Strait, the point where Alaska and Russia are the closest to each other. 

Instead, the storm hit struck coastal southwest Alaska, sending deadly storm surges into communities like Kwigillingok and Kipnuk and other remote towns.  Houses floated away, some with people inside. Rescuers were able to retrieve at least two dozen people. However, one person is confirmed dead and two are missing. 

National Weather Service forecasts in Alaska did issue many warnings for the area that was hit hardest boy the storm, but they did so without the help of accurate model projects made days in advance.

That might have meant that warnings that should have gone out sooner didn't. 

The Alaska Beacon compared this storm with another ex-typhoon named Merbok in 2022.

"Unlike Merkok, which was very well forecast by the global models, this one's final track and intensity weren't clear until the storm was within 36 hours of crossing into Alaska's waters. That's too late for evacuations in many places."

The area hit by the storm is remote, so it's not easy to deal with an extreme storm. It's not like the Lower 48, where people can evacuate to a nearby school, municipal building or hotel when severe weather looms.  In Alaska, you need more time to prepare. 

The Alaska Beacon also tells us:  "There have not been any upper air weather balloon observations at Saint Paul Island in the Bering Sea since late August or at Kotzebue since February. Bethel and Cold Bay are limited to one per day instead of two. At Nome, there were no weather balloons for two full days as the storm."

Meteorologists are still trying to assess to what extent the lack of balloon launches had on forecast accuracy. 

 CNN continues:

"'Not having balloons didn't help,' the forecast, said a NOAA official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, although forecasts for Alaska also really on data from Asia as storms move from that region into North America." 

All the major computer models had errors in the projected path of the storm, though it's hard to tease out  how much of that error was due to the lack of balloon launches and their data, and how much might have been from other factors.  

The aftermath of the storm is more difficult in remote areas like the west coast of Africa. There's no Home Depot right around the corner to buy replacement roofing, windows and flooring. For those whose houses were destroyed, there's nowhere to go. 

Hundreds of people have been displaced. The Alaska Beacon says residents are face with an impossible decision: They could go to come place like Anchorage for the winter and return next summer to rebuild. But cities are expensive. 

However, there's no housing in the remote coastline of Alaska to move into. All disasters are incredibly difficult for the victims. In Alaska, it's even more so. 

 

Alaska Storm Blasts Its Western Coast; Extensive Damage, People Missing

Flooding from Alaska that swept homes off their
foundations, and left people missing. Nearly
three dozen people were rescued. 

Because we in the media are so concentrated here, the East Coast nor'easter is getting all the weather attention.

But a much worse storm has hit Alaska, causing extreme destruction and an as yet unknown number of deaths.  Alaska

As the Associated Press reports:

"....the remnants of Typhoon Halong brought hurricane force winds and catastrophic flooding to coastal communities, pushing entire houses off their foundations. 

Rescue aircraft were sent to the tiny Alaskan villages of Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, where there were were reports of up to 20 people possibly unaccounted for, said Jeremy Zidek, spokesperson for the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. 

'We have received reports that people's homes have floated away and that people were potentially in those homes,' Zidek told the Associated Press. At least eight homes were swept away in Kipnuk and at least four homes were swept away in nearby Kwigillingok, Zidek said."

The Anchorage Daily News came back with a hopeful update this afternoon (EDT) saying 34 people had been rescued in or near those two towns, and three people remained missing.  Tides were as much as  6.6 feet above normal, which is a record high for the area. Wind gusts reached 100 mph in Toksook Bay before the sensors stopped working.

In Bethel, workers were trying to clear debris from the airport runways to keep it open. High winds kept blowing the stuff onto the airport property. Winds in Bethel gusted to at least 71 mph. 

Typhoon Halong curved southeast of Japan on October 8 and 9 before heading into somewhat cooler waters in the North Pacific. Although Halong became a non-tropical storm, it still gained energy from above normal water temperatures in the North Pacific. 

The storm slammed into Alaska during Sunday. As of today, winds and storm tides were tapering off.  

Juneau, Alaska, Hit With Another "Glacial Outburst" Flood, But This Time They Fought Back

Barriers this year kept the worst of what has become
the annual glacial outburst flood this week
in Juneau, Alaska. You can see how badly
the houses in this photo would have been
flooded without the barriers. 

 Yearly summer events are often fun.

'The one in Juneau, Alaska is not.  

Once again, as has happened every August lately, parts of Alaska's capitol city are being hit by what is know as a glacial outburst flood. 

Such a flood happens when parts of a glacier melt, and water backs up behind rocks and/or ice. Finally the water breaks through, causing an often destructive flash flood. 

In Juneau, water from the melting glacier fills a hemmed in basin until the pressure grows strong enough to release a torrent of water from the Mendenhall Glacier and down the Mendenhall River into Juneau. 

Per the Washington Post: 

"By Wednesday morning, the floodwaters racing gown from what's called Suicide Basin has risen to record levels, faster than scientists had predicted the day before. 

Juneau officials warned residents to evacuate parts of the city that have been prone to repeated flooding."

It appears the flooding peaked Wednesday morning.    About 1,000 people had evacuated ahead of the flood. 

The Mendenhall River was already at minor flood stage because of heavy rains Sunday and early Monday. Since the river started at an elevated level, the gush of water from the glacier pushed the river Wednesday morning to 16.65 feet, which surpassed the record high level of 16 feet set during last August's glacial outburst.  

Since this has become a destructive, frustrating annual event, Juneau is trying to minimize the damage. 

This year, the city worked with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers to build a massive wall of Hesco barriers along the river to prevent the destruction seen in the last two years, WaPo reports. 

Hesco barriers are durable cloth bags filled with dirt and sand and reinforce with a metal frame. They were often used by the military in places like Iraq and Afghanistan to fortify bases.  But they can be used as giant sandbags, too.

Early reports suggest the Hesco barriers mostly held, preventing much of the feared damage to homes near the river. Roads and streets were inundated, and some homes might have taken on a little water, but the damage appears to be much less than in the previous two years. 

The Hesco wall is expensive, and included big bills assessed to residents who live in flood zones.  There needs to be a more permanent solution, but the future of these floods is unpredictable. 

 The Juneau glacial outburst floods started in 2011 and have worsened in recent years. Climate change is helping to melt more glacial ice than in years past, so more water is now usually available to cause these August floods.

In August, 2023, the outburst flood destroyed several homes.  That event included dramatic video of a house collapsing into the river.  Last year, at least 300 homes were damaged by the flooding. 

It's possible that the nature of future summer glacial floods could change as more of the glacier melts, or the thawing gets even more intense in future years. Alaska has warmed twice as fast as any other state over the past few decades, and there's no reason why that trend won't continue, as areas closer to the Arctic are warming faster than places closer to the Equator. 

The Mendenhall glacial flooding could in upcoming years find another outlet, or burst out another way instead of blasting down the Mendenhall River in one big swoosh.  

Juneau - and many other parts of the world prone to glacial outburst floods in the age of climate change - need to stay on their toes. 

Vermont Weekend Rain Streak Lives On, But Weather Will Be Decent. Meanwhile, Baked, Weird Alaska

The sky over St. Albans, Vermont around 7 a.m. tells the
weekend weather story. The darker clouds on the left
are toward the south, the blue skies are to the north.
Those blue skies will spend today fighting their 
way southward across the most of the 
Green Mountain State today. 

The long streak of consecutive weekends with rain or snow lives on in Vermont! This is now officially the 26th consecutive weekend with precipitation in Vermont, at least as measured in Burlington. 

Um, yay?  

A period of light rain early this morning in Burlington deposited just 0.05 inches of rain.  That's actually a tiny bit more than the trace Burlington had last weekend. 

Up here in St. Albans we had just a few raindrops around 6 a.m.today. Not even really enough to make the driveway look wet.

But don't worry, this will still be the nicest weather weekend Vermont has seen in ages. Even if conditions aren't perfect. 

First of all, it was such a relief on Friday to look over at the Green Mountains and they looked......green.

The main thing was you could actually see them, as the wildfire smoke that has been plaguing our area finally got flushed out by clean northerly winds yesterday. There was so little haze left that you could clearly see the lush greenness of our hills and forests in all their summer glory. 

FORECAST

The great news is we're getting the rain out of the way early and we can go on with the weekend. Hell, most people were still sleeping when it rained around here early today, so it doesn't matter. 

Overcast skies will slowly clear north to south today.  Blue sky was already starting to show up over St. Albans as of 7 a.m.

The north should have a pleasant, largely sunny day. It'll take longer for the clouds to clear in the south. If you're down around Brattleboro or places like that, it could take most or all of the day before you get some sun. 

It'll be cool for the season today, with highs only in the low 70s under the sun north and 60s under the clouds south. 

Tomorrow (Sunday) still looks pretty damn good, too. Not perfect, but good. It'll be partly sunny once again, with more clouds predominating in the south again. It'll stay cool with highs only in the low 70s.

There's a very slight chance of a shower Sunday.  But if you do get unlucky enough to see rain on Sunday it would probably amount to just a some sprinkles that last a few minutes.  

It still looks like it will get warmer and more humid as we go through the upcoming week. The ever-present risk of showers and storms will be there, mostly in the muggy air Wednesday and Thursday, 

Over this weekend, you might see just barely some hints of smoke from time to time in the atmosphere over Vermont this weekend, but it will be much, much better than it's been. Air quality here in Vermont will be fine.

For now, winds are taking much of Canadian wildfire smoke northwestward toward Alaska. 

AN ALASKAN EXCURSION

As an aside, things have gotten strange up in Alaska. On top of the smoke, we now have a baked Alaska situation, if you will. A first-ever heat advisory is in effect for tomorrow and Monday for a big stretch of central and eastern Alaska. Temperatures will be between 85 and 90 degrees, which isn't that bad by our standards but torrid for Alaska. 

Fairbanks, Alaska is forecasting high temperatures in the 80s daily through at least Friday. Normal highs there this time of year are in the upper 60s.

Meanwhile, much of far northern Alaska is under a flood watch. The snow pack up until now on Alaska's North Slope has been unusually deep and thick  and persistent for this late in the season. The big warm spell now moving into Alaska will rapidly melt this snow to cause flooding. There's still actually ice on the rivers up there, too, so ice jam flooding would also be a problem. 

So, complain all you want about Vermont's stretch of rainy weekends. At least we got rid of our ice jam and snow melt flood issues way back in mid-March. 

Baked Alaska: How That Frigid Northern State Not So Frigid This Winter, Compared To The Lower 48.

Not something you see very often: Water on top of ice
during a January thaw in normally frigid interior 
Alaska. Photo taken last week near Fairbanks. Photo
from National Weather Service office, Fairbanks. 

The Washington Post just had an interesting piece comparing the kind of January Alaska has had compared to the rest of us in the tropical Lower 48. 

Compared to Alaska, the Lower 48 ain't so tropical.  There's quite a role reversal going on. 

Anchorage, Alaska is having one of its warmest Januaries on record. With just a few days left in the month, the average temperature for January is 29.3 degrees, or a whopping 13 or so degrees warmer than normal.

Anchorage in January has been warmer than such cities as Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Louisville. 

We also had that famous snowstorm along the Gulf Coast earlier this month, which means New Orleans and Pensacola, Florida have had more snow this January than Anchorage. 

It's not just Anchorage. Fairbanks, in interior Alaska, is normally known as a forbidding icebox, where low temperatures often get into the 40s below zero and sometimes in the 50s to near 60 below. 

For only the second time on record, Fairbanks had a low temperature on a January day that was above freezing. (33 on January 25). On seven days this month,  the temperature in Fairbanks rose above 32 degrees. 

The normal high during January is 3 above zero and the normal low is about 15 below.  

Meanwhile, most of the Lower 48 has been unusually cold this January. That's especially true in the southeastern half of the United States. Though that region is having a mild spell in the closing days of this month, it will still be among the colder Januaries on record in much of the South.

The only regions of the Lower 48 that have been warmer than average are Maine, and large sections of Nevada, California, Oregon and Utah. 

REASONS AND OUTLOOK

The Alaska warmth is probably a mix between a fluke and climate change. A persistent northward bulge in the jet stream has kept Alaska on the mild side. A corresponding dip in the jet stream has pushed frigid air that's normally up in Alaska and northern Canada down into the United States. 

A marine heat wave, which is a zone of much warmer than normal ocean temperatures, has been ongoing in the Pacific from near Japan to the Gulf of Alaska. The marine heat wave is likely at least partly due to climate change and has probably been bolstering the Alaska balminess.

Plus, cold waves are in general less cold than they once were and hot spells are hotter in this age of climate change. That's likely a factor that has caused record heat in Alaska.  

The cold temperatures in the Lower 48 have broken few record lows, except near the Gulf Coast, where a previously unheard of snow cover combined with clear nighttime skies caused all time record lows as cold as 1 below zero not far from the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana. 

(Editor's note: Yes, the Trump administration has renamed it Gulf of America, but international regulators, as well as the Associated Press style book still call it the Gulf of Mexico, so that's what we'll do here). 

The Alaska winter warmth is expected to mostly continue for awhile yet. The latest National Weather Service extended forecast out to two weeks calls for continued above normal temperatures in most of Alaska at least until a tad before Valentine's Day.  

For the Lower 48, the outlook is mixed, with variable conditions over the next two weeks. The northwestern United States is most likely to stay on the chilly side. 

Theses kinds of things do have a tendency to even out, usually. Although everything is skewed by climate change, I'm sure the Lower 48 will have its torrid hot spells in 2025 while Alaska will at least at times, revert back to its usual chilly vibe 

As Lower 48 Prepares To Sink Into Arctic Icebox, Alaska Experiences Record Warmth And Storminess.

Destructive winds amid record high temperatures
blew this pedestrian walkway onto a highway
Sunday in Seward, Alaska. 

As cold weather in  much of the United States gets ready to turn truly Arctic and icy, Alaska is having a strangely warm, stormy time of it.  

The most extreme weather hit Anchorage and environs Sunday, with a windstorm so fierce that some houses lost their roofs, caused a pedestrian bridge to partly collapse, and toppled scores of trees and power lines. 

A landslide also blocked a road in Seward, but that was cleaned up within a day without causing injuries. 

Winds gusted to 132 mph at a mountain location south of Anchorage, the Associated Press reports. Just north of Anchorage, a 107 mph gust was reported in Arctic Valley. Within Anchorage itself, winds reached 75 mph. 

Some power outages around Anchorage were expected to last four days, at least through today, Wednesday. 

The extreme northern tip of Alaska experienced their own weird, warm storm. Utqiagvic, formerly Barrow is usually dark, dry and incredibly frigid this time of year. Normal highs are around minus 5 with the low around 16 below.

Instead, it's been incredibly warm for them. Also windy. Plus, on Tuesday, the had a rarity. Utqiagvic had a touch of freezing drizzle, which is practically unheard of there, especially in January. The high temperature reached 25 degrees, which doesn't seem impressive, but it fell just short of a record high. 

On Monday, it snowed in Utquigvic, and if you melted it down, it amounted to 0.29 inches of rain. Again, that doesn't sound like much, but for them, it was a record wet or snowy day. The high temperature was 24, again just short of a  record high. Oh, and the wind gusted to 60 mph. 

So quite a day for them. 

RECORD HIGHS

Fairbanks, Alaska is usually a bitter icebox this time of year, with a normal high of near 0 and a low around 18 below. 

But on Sunday, the temperature soared to a record high of 47 degrees, beating the old record high by eight degrees. On Monday, Fairbanks set another record high of 42,  It's now turning a little colder in Fairbanks, but not nearly as cold as it usually is this time of year. 

After getting a little below zero Thursday, daytime highs are forecast to be in the teens and 20s for at least a week, with overnight lows above zero. That'll be warmer than it will be around here in Vermont. 

Other record highs on Sunday up in Alaska included 44 degrees in McGrath, which exceeded the old record by a big eight degrees. Normally frigid Kotzebue got a little above freezing for a record high of 33, beating the old record of just 30. 

WHY ALASKA BAKES, LOWER 48 FREEZES

A huge northward bulge in the jet stream is allowing warm Pacific air to flood into Alaska, so they're not having the January they're used to having. 

This is one big, big northward bulge, so you're going to have a big, big corresponding dip in the jet stream to the east. That big dip is taking frigid air from the North Pole and is slamming it southward through central Canada.

That Arctic air will cross the border into the northern Plains later Friday and then quickly engulf virtually all of the Lower 48 from the Rockies to the East Coast by Saturday night. 

Low temperatures are expected to reach the 20s to near 30 below zero across a big swath of the northern United States from Idaho to Michigan, Parts or all of 40 states will probably get below zero.

The frigid temperatures are forecast to moderate, but not entirely go away, within about a week from when they start 

 .

  

Videos:

News report on the wind in Anchorage. Click on this link to view or if you see image below, click on that

More wind damage around Anchorage: Click on this link to view, or if again, if you see image below, click on that. 

Security footage of a pedestrian bridge collapsing due to high wind in Seward, Alaska. Once again click on this link to view, or if you see the image below, click on that. 

Two Extreme And Dramatic Weather Events Prove Fatal In Alaska, Arizona

Extreme flash flooding in the Havasu Creek and Falls
area of the Grand Canyon last week killed one person
and forced helicopter rescues for dozens of others. 

 I've been a bit fascinated and horrified in the past week of two big local weather-related events in two very different, scenic spots. One was a landslide in Ketchikan, Alaska and the other an epic flash flood in northern Arizona. 

I often cite local disasters like this as evidence of the harm created by climate change. 

Both of these disasters might have been related to climate change, but I don't know for sure and can't prove it either way. But still, they're pretty intense. 

NORTHERN ARIZONA

Havasu Creek and Havasu Canyon in northern Arizona - part of the Grand Canyon are an incredibly scenic spot in northern Arizona, popular with hikers and vacationers. It features Havasu Falls, a gorgeous blue-green feature that attracts thousands of tourists annually and is a main attraction to the Grand Canyon 

Hundreds of hikers were in the canyon and along the creek last Thursday when disaster struck. It's monsoon season in Arizona, when moisture from both the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico find their way to the Desert Southwest. 

The monsoons create intense thunderstorms, famous for creating abrupt flash floods in the deserts, low water crossings, creeks, canyons and back country of Arizona. 

Last Thursday, an especially intense monsoon struck in and around Havasu Canyon.  The resulting flash flood was epic, stranding at least 100 hikers and sweeping away a woman, who was later found dead. 

Reports News 12 in Arizona:

"Chenoa Nickerson, 33, was hiking with her husband near Havasu Creek on Thursday when the  couple was swept away by the flash flood. Her husband was able to be rescued by rafters, but Nickerson went missing in the Colorado River."

Her body was eventually found 20 miles downriver. Nickerson's family is raising money for the National Park Service Search and Rescue in her honor. Family members said the search and rescue team is historically underfunded, and they believe this is a great way to honor Nickerson's memory. 

I couldn't agree more. 

The death toll could well have been higher, but Havasupai tribal members who live in the area recognized the flash flood situation developing and warned hikers to seek high ground immediately.  

The Havasupai Tribe's reservation is perhaps the most remote in the nation. You can only get to it on foot, mule or via helicopter. 

Havasu Falls and surrounding trails are now off limits to visitors for the foreseeable future. The tribe is working with FEMA on coordinating repairs.  Although monsoon flash flooding is common in this area, the one that struck last week was much worse than usual.  

Dramatic video of the flash flood are here and here. 

KETCHIKAN, ALASKA

Ketchikan, Alaska, on the state's panhandle south of Juneau,  is normally very wet - one of the wettest cities on Earth. Its normal annual rainfall is about 150 inches. (That compares to roughly 40 inches a year here in Vermont).  

Aerial view of the big landslide
in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Recently, however, the tain was too much even for soggy Ketchikan. A tragic landslide last Sunday buried part of a city neighborhood, killing one person and injuring three others. Numerous homes were destroyed in a dense neighborhood not far from downtown, reports Alaska Public Media.

The person killed was Sean Griffin, a senior maintenance technician for Ketchikan who was off duty but volunteering to clear clogged storm drains when the landslide hit. 

A number of factors could have contributed to the slide. Around 2.5 inches of rain fell on Ketchikan that day That's unusually heavy for a single day there, but not record-breaking.  

 Fatal landslides have been increasing in southeast Alaska, with four such slides in the past decade. It's possible climate change has had a hand in this, as increases in temperature, precipitation and wind associated with climate change might be making the steep landscape less stable. 

Gabriel Woken of the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys said he suspect climate change might be playing a role, but the causes of the landslides are so complex that it's hard to know for sure.  

Juneau, Alaska Keeps Getting Flooded By Melting Glacier

A neighborhood in Juneau, Alaska inundated last week
by what is known as a "glacial outburst" flood.

 Last Tuesday, a melting glacier unleashed a torrent of water into neighborhoods in Juneau, Alaska, something that is becoming a summertime scourge in the state's capitol city. 

The water flooded about 100 homes and forced residents to flee through the frigid ice water to safety. 

If all this sounds familiar, it's because practically the same thing happened almost exactly a year later. You might remember the viral footage of a building in Juneau falling into the Mendenhall River after another flood, a type known as a glacial outburst. 

The term "glacial outburst" almost sounds like an oxymoron. Glacial evokes slowness, and outburst seems like it's something sudden. 

But follow me, here. 

The Mendenhall Glacier sits in the high elevations above Juneau. Especially in the past decade or so, a basin behind the glacier fills up with rainwater and melt from the glacier. The glacier acts like a dam to hold this lake back.

Until it doesn't

The pent up suddenly finds a way through, and the result is a flash flood in Juneau. That's what happened last Tuesday. 

Last year's version seemed more dramatic, but it only damaged or destroyed buildings right along the Mendenhall River's edge. This time, more water suddenly blasted down the hillsides than last year. That caused more widespread flooding and damaged houses further away from the river than in the 2023 event, the Washington Post reports. 

WaPo continues:

"Glacial outburst floods have poured out of Suicide Basin more than 30 times since 2011. It is challenging to predict exactly how large they will be, since conditions change each year. The jumble of icebergs in the basin keep melting - adding more liquid to the pool - and the glacier that acts as a dam keeps thinning and retreating as the atmosphere warms, so scientists don't know exactly when the pent-up water might release." 

Figuring out how much water will come out of the glacier during an outburst is hard to forecast, too. 

Scientists who are studying the glacier, and the basin - called Suicide Basin - where the water collects in the summer say year to year changes in the basin and the shape of the glacier make it difficult to determine how much water is dammed behind the glacier.

This year, the water in the basin wasn't has high as last year. But the basin is getting wider as the main glacier melts and gets thinner. The result was a greater volume of water in the basin this year that last.

This whole glacial outburst mess in Juneau - and elsewhere in the world - is of course tied to climate change. Mountain glaciers are melting all over the world, setting up similar temporary lakes behind glaciers in places like the Alps and the Himalayas. 

Those areas, too, are prone to glacial outbursts. 

 

Not Much Snow In Vermont, So Go To Buried Alaska?

Photo from a Facebook post by The Alaska Life gives a 
taste of what intersections in Anchorage, Alaska 
currently look like after record snowstorms, 

 We all know Alaska is for the most part bitterly cold in the winter. 

We'd expect snow to accompany that Arctic air, but this winter, populated parts of the state are absolutely buried in it.  

As of Tuesday, Anchorage, Alaska has so far had 104.6 inches of snow this season. That's easily the earliest in the season they've ever cracked the 100 inch snow mark.

 If Anchorage does not get so much as another flake of snow this winter (ha!) they've still had two feet more snow than they normally do in an entire season.

The city's last big installment of snow was the 16.6 inches that fell this past weekend. Since there's few places to put the snow, it's taking a long time to clean up the mess.  As of Tuesday, there was 37 inches of snow on the ground in Anchorage. 

It doesn't help that a frigid cold snap - fairly intense even by Anchorage standards has moved in.  High temperatures will be below zero until at least Saturday and low temperatures will flirt with 20 below. (Normal lows this time of year in Anchorage are in the low teens with normal highs in the low 20s)

There's also so much snow that roofs around Anchorage are beginning to collapse.  A warehouse roof collapsed this week near Anchorage. There were people inside, but they all managed to escape uninjured. 

Anchorage is also an earthquake-prone city, so I hope they don't have any temblors with all that snow on the roofs to make things even more unstable when the shaking starts.

Last year, 107.9 inches of snow fell in Anchorage, so this makes it the first time since at least the 1950s they've had back to back winters each with over 100 inches of snow. There were roof collapsed last year, too, one of which killed a person. Officials in Anchorage are worried the same thing could happen again in the coming days and weeks.

More snow is in the Anchorage forecast from Saturday night into Tuesday night. 

Juneau is much more temperate than the rest of the state.  Snow tends to come and go there, but this month has been ridiculous.  Back to back snowstorms in mid-January amounted to 64.7 inches in less than two weeks. Snow cover on the ground peaked at 36 inches.

The snow was so heavy that it sank some boats in Juneau harbor 

Then it turned warm, with 3.5 inches of rain within six days. The snow cover melted to zero with six days. The snowmelt and rain obviously created  some flooding around Juneau.  

The snow in parts of Alaska is no doubt extreme, but National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider told Alaska Public Radio that this winter's cold is not that odd for Alaska.

Up in Fairbanks, it has been often in the 40s below zero for the past week. But it used to go to 50 below or colder in Fairbanks every year. Now it's maybe once every decade. 

That's all thanks to climate change. 

There's even some speculation and research suggesting the snowier winters swaths of Alaska are seeing in recent years has to do with climate change. The air near Alaska is now tending to be warmer than it used to be. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so precipitation has been increasing in Alaska. Four of the top 10 wettest years in Anchorage have happened since 2004.  

"Warmer" in Alaska can still mean temperatures well below freezing, so of course much of the extra precipitation can be snow.  

Want Snow? Go To Anchorage, Alaska. Record Dumps There

A neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska. Via X (formerly
Twitter by @Tomhewittnews.

 In the Lower 48 of the United States, winter has been reluctant to arrive. Oh, sure it's snowed here and there, including in Vermont where we live. 

But there's been nothing dramatic. Just spits and flurries and bursts of light snow. 

This is a contrast to many years in the past, in which epic blizzards by now in the upper Midwest, and big nor'easters with heavy snow in the interior Northeast. 

This year so far, it's been meh. Just the so-called nuisance snows around here that I've already talked about. 

But if you love winter, one place you should have been this month is Anchorage, Alaska and environs. 

Sure, you'd expect snow in Alaska during November. You know, the Great White North and all that. But they've been hammered far more than you'd expect.

Anchorage has already endured two bouts of huge snow dumps this month. The first came last week. 

According to Alaska Public Media: 

"Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson declared a snow emergency Thursday evening, freeing additional resources to clear local roads. In a statement, he said that street maintenance crews had responded to 40 downed trees during a 15-hour period."

Then, another storm hit Monday, with at around nine inches to a  foot of new snow in and around Anchorage. By Monday evening, the city had gotten 38.1 inches of snow so far this month. That's just a few tenths of an inch away from the all-time snowiest November on record up there. So they have half a month to break the record. I can't imagine they'll fall short 

Sadly, homelessness has become an increasingly serious issue in pretty much every city in the United States, including Anchorage. It's been decided by the Powers That Be, that it isn't worth trying to deal with the homeless crisis, or drug addiction, mental illness or inadequate wages for that matter.  

Thank you for letting me stand on my soapbox there. 

Anyway, the two feet of snow that plastered Anchorage helped lead to the deaths of four homeless people in the past week, says the Associated Press.

The brings the total number of homeless people who have died in Anchorage this year to 49. It's only the beginning of winter.  I wonder how many houseless people will die of the cold in Anchorage or elsewhere?

For motorists, the snow and ice has gotten so bad they've had to call out road graders to chop up the icy ruts caused by traffic in the storms. 

It's all going to get worse in Anchorage. An ugly rain and wet snow mixture is in the forecast there through Thursday morning. Then the mix is forecast to change to all snow before tapering off Friday afternoon. What a mess! 

On the bright side, it the snow won't be nearly as heavy as it has been the past few days. But it will get quite cold by the weekend, even by Anchorage standards. 

 

Alaska Glacial Flood Might Just Be A Foretaste Of Something Much Worse

A house tumbles into the Mendenhall River in Juneau,
Alaska last month after water from a melting glacier
burst through ice and roared down the valley. So
called glacial outburst floods are becoming more
common worldwide as glaciers melt under climate change. 

 You might have seen on the news last month a flood in Juneau, Alaska which included video of a house, having been undermined by raging water, toppled into the flooded river.  

This wasn't your average heavy rain flood. This was, at least in part, glaciers melting under pressure from climate change. 

In the Alaska incident, a melting glacier filled a valley with water, A high spot or chunks of glacier ice blocks the water, creating a lake. That natural dam can't hold, so eventually the water just pours out

According to Alaska Public Media:

"The basin drains like this every year. The glacier, which blocks its mouth, acts as a dam. Throughout the spring and summer, the basin fills with rain and meltwater until the water builds enough pressure to crack through the ice. Then it works its way through those cracks and out under the glacier, triggering the start of a glacial outburst flood.

Most years, the flooding has been minor. But this year, it tore through the Mendenhall Valley with more force than ever before gnawing through the riverbank and undermining homes that once seemed safe. Two homes were swept away completely, and dozens of people have been displaced."

For the longest time, a flood like what hit this river in Juneau couldn't have happened. This basin, or valley, was pretty much entirely filled by the glacier. With all that ice in the way, water couldn't collect there.

Over the years, the glacier receded under the unrelenting impact of our changing climate. Where the glacier once was, there is now a huge bowl shaped depression. In the summer, it rains, snow melts, and parts of the glacier melt further. This bowl fills up with water, basically turning into a lake. 

The glacial outburst floods started in 2011, but until this year, they haven't caused much damage. 

With more of the glacier melting, there's more and more room for the basin to fill up with a lot more water. This year, a lot of water collected before breaking through the glacier ice.

The result downstream was an unmitigated disaster.  It was by far the worst glacial outburst flood in Juneau's history.  The Mendenhall River flowed at six times its normal rate. The homes and buildings destroyed in the flood, some of which fell into the river, were originally 50 feet away from the river bank. 

"'Decades worth of erosion happened in one weekend,' Rick Thomas, Alaska Climate Specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy told Climate.gov. 'The buildings that fell into the river and those that are uninhabitable now, were not right next to the river on Friday afternoon."

Alaska Public Media again:

"(University of Alaska Southeast hydrologist Erin  ) Hood says the threat posed by glacial outbursts floods will hang over Juneau until the Mendenhall Glacier melts down to the point it can no longer dam the sin. That will likely take decades - and Hood would be surprised if Juneau doesn't see even worse floods before it happens."

Glacial outburst floods are by no means unique to Juneau, or Alaska for that matter. According to the Washington Post: 

"Some 15 million people worldwide live under the threat of sudden flooding from glaciers, according to a study published this year in the journal Nature Communications. As the climate warms, glaciers everywhere are retreating and meltwater lakes have grown in size and number, intensifying this threat." 

There have always been glacial outburst floods, but they are increasing as climate change accelerates the melt.  Runoff from the melting glaciers forms lakes behind ice, rocks or soil, just as it did in Juneau last month. Then the barrier breaks and sometimes tremendous flash floods result.

Some of the worst new glacial outburst floods have been in places like Pakistan, Nepal and China, parts of which are downstream from Himalayan glaciers. Parts of Peru, near the Andes, are also at risk.  

The number of glacial lakes and total area covered by those lakes have increased by 50 percent since 1990. Not all these lakes will produce dangerous outburst floods, but some inevitably will. 

I guess we add this to the list of a zillion hazards associated with climate change. 

One glimmer of good news: A cat named Leo was thought to be in a house that collapsed into the river in Juneau during the flood. However, the cat must have run out of the house when it heard it creaking before the collapse. Leo was just found safe, 26 days after the disaster. 

 Here news video of that house collapsing into the river. Click on this link to view, or if you see the image below click on that:

 

Northern Tip Of Alaska Had Its First Cooling Degree Day Yesterday. Why That Matters

Add another place to the list of all time record heat this summer
Utqiagvik, on the northernmost tip of Alaska, had its
warmest day on record with a high of 76 and low of 56.
Normally, summer high temperatures are in the 
40s and lows are in the 30s up there. 

 The town of Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow, on the northernmost tip of Alaska, had a mean temperature of 66 degrees yesterday. 

It was the warmest day overall in that community's history (The mean temperature is adding the low, 56 and the high, 76 together then dividing by two).

Saturday was also, then the first day, Utqiagvik ever recorded a cooling degree day 

Now, bear with me, as this is going to be a little esoteric at first. A cooling degree day is the number of degrees the mean temperature was above 65 degrees. Cooling degree days are used as a rough tool to gauge air conditioning and other cooling needs in buildings. 

I don't think the fine citizens of Utqiagvik were rushing out today to buy air conditioners. After all, normal high temperatures this time of year are in the mid and upper 40s, with lows in the mid-30s. Kind of like November in Vermont. 

But this whole warm spell is another in a zillion different examples of how the Arctic is warming faster than most of the rest of the planet.  Which is why you should care.

First of all, this wasn't a one-off in Utqiagvik. The previous warmest day on record was 63.5 degrees, a record which was tied on July 19. What is now the fourth hottest day in those northern reaches was tied on July 17, as Alaskan climatologist Brian Brettschneider tells us on X, formerly known as Twitter.

(Gosh, there's a lot of "formerly known as" mentions in this post).

Meanwhile, Deadhorse, Alaska, further east near the Arctic coast in Alaska, reached 84 degrees Saturday, it's hottest day ever.

As Brettschneider points out, weirdly hot weather in Alaska doesn't stay in Alaska. Thank you, climate change. 

If there are any land-based glaciers in the heat zone, they'll melt all that much faster, contributing to sea level rise. 

Less certain is the effects Arctic warmth has on the jet stream.  Some scientists think that the warmer Arctic makes the jet stream weaker, more likely to meander wildly and get "stuck" in certain patterns. 

It's still up for debate whether that's happening, but signs are there.  Which could be one reason we in Vermont seem to have had a flash flood every five minutes most of this summer. 

Northern Tip Of Alaska Just Had What Is For Them Extreme December Heat

Temperature departure map from Monday shows extreme
warmth, relative to average, over almost all of the state.

 In the winter, it's dark and extremely cold around Utqiagvik, formerly Barrow on the northern tip of Alaska. 

On Monday however, the high temperature at Utqiagvik reached 40 degrees.  

That doesn't sound too warm, but that 40 degree reading was way, way beyond what anybody had ever seen in that frigid northern settlement.

That 40 degrees broke the all-time record high for the month of December by a whopping six degrees. Not only that, it was the warmest it has ever been in Utqiagvik on any date between October 20 and April 22. 

A reading of 40 degrees in Utqiagvik is the normal high temperature for the middle of June there. It's comparable to as if it was in the upper 70s this time of year in Vermont.  

Utqiagvik also set a record on Friday, when the low temperature was 28 degrees, which was the warmest low for any date in December.

This time of year the normal high temperature in Utqiagvik is 4 above and the low would be 9 below.  It's so far north that the sun set in Utqiagvik on November 18 and won't rise above the horizon again until January 23.

So it clearly wasn't the sun's heat that caused the December heat wave in the northern reaches of Alaska. Instead, a strong storm well to the west pushed warm air from points much further south into the region.

Jokesters on social media are saying this is a current view of
Utqiagvik, on the northern tip of Alaska. In reality, it's dark
and cold there, but by their standards, just had a shockingly 
warm day that has people stunned

The air flowed down the slopes of the Brooks Range, which is to the south of Utqiagvik, which helped compress and warm the air. Also, a relative lack of sea ice along and off the coast might have also contributed.  

What passes for winter warm spells in Alaska happen from time to time, but such extreme warmth had been unheard of in northern Alaska until now.  I can't help but think climate change was a factor here. 

The Arctic is warming as much as four times faster than midlatitudes, and this can be seen in Utquiagvik.  As the Weather Channel points out, since 2015, the town has set monthly all time record highs in January, May, June, October and now December. 

The Washington Post tells us December warmth was not limited to Utqiagvik.  It's been widespread across much of northern Alaska and the Arctic as a whole. 

Umiat, roughly 170 miles southeast of Utqiagvik saw temperatures rise into the 40s in December for the first time since at least World War II.

In another part of the Arctic far from Alaska, Nuuk which is Greenland's capital, reached a whopping 50 degrees as December started. Most of the island's weather stations rose above freezing that day. Iceland got up as high as 58 degrees.

In the Arctic as a whole, the first few days of December were a good 11.5 degrees warmer than normal,  the Washington Post reports.