Spotlight on Climate
2020 Annual Summary Report Available Now
Statewide 2020 Year in Review
- Alaska was noticeably cooler in 2020 than in the previous seven years, with a mean temperature 0.4 F above the 1981-2010 average.
- The North Slope, Interior, and Panhandle regions were wetter than normal. This ended drought conditions in the Panhandle that had lasted for 18 months. The West Coast, Cook Inlet and Bristol Bay regions were drier than normal, with moderate drought conditions developing over Kotzebue and Kodiak Island in August.
- Above average snowfall was observed in Anchorage, Bettles and Fairbanks, with below average snowfall in Juneau for the year.
- The 2020 Alaska wildfire season was much less active than the previous year, with only 340 fires recorded and just over 181,000 acres of land burnt, significantly less than the 2 million acres burnt in 2019.
- The September minimum sea ice extent was the second lowest in the 42-year satellite record, at 3.74 million square kilometers.
See: 2020 NOAA Arctic Report Card
- Papers and Books by the ACRC -
The mountain weather and climate of Denali, Alaska – An Overview
J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., Download it here.
On the Precipitation and Precipitation Change in Alaska
Atmosphere Download it here.
On the Climate and Climate Change of Sitka, Southeast Alaska
Theoretical and Applied Climatology. Download it here.
Strong Temperature Increase and Shrinking Sea Ice in Arctic Alaska
The Open Atmospheric Science Journal. Download it here.
Book -
The Climate of Alaska
Produced by the Alaska Climate Research Center in 2007 by Martha Shulski and Gerd Wendler. Click here for more details!
For other papers please see our research page.