The Bristol Bay region includes most of the northern side of the Alaska Peninsula, the west coast south of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and the inland area roughly to the point where the Alaska Range bends around more strongly to the east
The ocean in Bristol Bay is shallow, and seasonal sea ice here reaches its
southernmost extent off the Alaska coast. In this plot comparing the temperature
records of the two Bristol Bay stations, King
Salmon (upper air station) and Iliamna
I have added a third station, Homer,
from a more exposed site in the Gulf of Alaska. Homer is north of King Salmon,
though south of Iliamna.
Note that the coldest station of the three, King Salmon, is also the southernmost,
but blocked by the Alaska Peninsula from the relatively warm currents of
the open Pacific.
The adjusted annual mean temperature plot for the region below was constructed
by calculating separate means for King Salmon and Iliamna for those years
for which mean annual temperatures were available for both stations, using
these means to construct an anomaly series for each station, averaging these
anomaly series, and adding the averaged anomaly to the averaged mean. The
procedure should correct for having one or the other station missing, but
makes no correction for change in location of the stations. This could be
serious for the move from Naknek
to King Salmon in 1941.
