A Look Across the State
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A Look Across the State
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| January 2007 Summary | |||||||||||||||||
| As the month began, circulation featured low pressure aloft over mainland Alaska; this feature moved off into the Yukon on the 9th. A large Aleutian low became established on the 12th and southwest flow aloft ensued. In the last week of the month, strong high pressure aloft built over Southeast Alaska, and south flow aloft over the mainland resulted. This brought widespread, record warmth to much of the Interior and the northwest coast. |
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| In the Arctic, temperatures ranged from 4ºF above normal in the west, near Wainwright, to 2ºF below normal at Barrow and Prudhoe Bay. Remnants of northward moving weather systems from the Bering Sea brought as much as twice the normal snowfall for the month to the west. Frequent south winds aloft held snowfall in the east to as little as half the normal amounts for January. The west coast had abundant snowfall, thanks to persistent inflow from the north Pacific and frequent stormy weather inbound from the Bering Sea. Snowfall totals ranged from just above normal in Bristol Bay to as much as four times normal around Kotzebue Sound. Temperatures were from 2 to 6ºF above normal from the Kuskokwim Delta to Kotzebue Sound, balanced by monthly averages from 2 to 5ºF cooler than normal farther west over Bering Strait, Saint Lawrence Island, Bristol Bay and the Aleutians out to the International Date Line. On the 31st, a powerful storm in the central Bering Sea brought temperatures from Bristol Bay to Bering Strait into the mid 30s to lower 40s, along with widespread rain, extensive gale force winds, and treacherous icy roads. The Interior had some cool weather during the first 10 days of the month, which was decisively replaced by mild temperatures for the rest of January. Overall, temperatures ranged from just above normal in the Kuskokwim Valley and on the south slopes of the Brooks Range to 4 to 6ºF warmer than normal nearly everywhere else. Averages were from 6 to 8ºF above normal over the upper reaches of the Yukon River valley. Snowfall totals were close to normal in the central Interior, and up to twice normal amounts in the far west and in the east, close to the Yukon border. Frequent snow and wind storms swept over the Interior's mid section during the third week of the month, creating difficult driving conditions on the Trans Alaska Pipeline corridor and in the highlands between Fairbanks and Circle City. A powerful Chinook wind at month's end sent temperatures soaring to remarkable levels. At Healy, just north of Denali National Park, the temperature reached a downright steamy 54ºF, a new January record. Interior temperature inversions reached extreme levels. On the 31st, early morning readings were near zero in southern Interior valleys while in the highlands temperatures were generally in the 40s. On the afternoon of the 31st, the weather balloon launched at Fairbanks measured a temperature of 53.6ºF at the 850 mb pressure level (an altitude near 5,000 feet above sea level.) This is far, far above the old January record at Fairbanks of 45.1ºF. Indeed, no weather balloon run in 60 years at Fairbanks, on any day from November 1 through April 30 (half of the year), had ever measured a temperature at the 850 mb pressure level that matches this new record. Fairbanks meteorologists figured that the factor that made the difference here was an unusual extent of thunderstorm clouds in the source region of this flow - from 30 to 35ºN latitude - which released a large amount of heat into the air mass moving northward that reached Alaska. The southern mainland generally had above normal precipitation, a result of frequent onshore flow. Amounts in the Copper River Basin and in the Chugach Mountains were up to twice normal. Temperatures around Kodiak Island and the eastern Alaska Peninsula were generally 2 to 5ºF cooler than normal, while those in the eastern Alaska Range were from 6 to 10ºF warmer than normal. Big Gulf of Alaska lows brought stormy weather to Kodiak Island and the Kenai Peninsula mountains near the end of the month. On the 25th, the ski races at Alyeska resort southeast of Anchorage were severely curtailed. High wind and whiteout conditions on the upper runs forced those who did ski to get to the starting gate the old way: by slogging uphill in blizzard conditions. The wind and heavy, wet snow markedly increased avalanche danger in the Chugach and Kenai Peninsula Mountains. A large avalanche occurred on the evening of the 25th above Eagle River. A controlled avalanche at the intersection of the Seward and Sterling Highways was successful beyond the expectations of the highway crews. A swath of snow 900 feet long and 200 feet wide buried both highways in eight feet of snow. Remarkably, there was little damage and no injury. Southeast Alaska had frequent onshore flow, temperatures as much as 6ºF above normal and precipitation ranging from near normal levels on the outer Pacific coast to more than 50% above normal in the north. Due to frequent outflow of cold air from British Columbia, snowfall amounts around valleys exiting the Canadian Interior were as much as twice normal. River conditions were surprisingly active for mid winter. On the Kenai Peninsula, the lake dammed by Skilak Glacier began a periodic release, cutting out under the glacier as it normally does every two or three years. Rising water levels on the lower Kenai River resulted, lifting ice cover on the river to form ice jams, which in turn began to cause damage to some boat docks and a few low lying stretches of road during the month's closing days. Record high temperatures at month's end around Healy caused enough snowmelt to bring up ground water levels and some small creeks in the nearby town of Anderson, flooding some basements and crawl spaces, and a couple of local roads. |
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Statewide Extremes
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Statewide Temperature and Precipitation
Departure Maps |
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| Marine weather was typically rough for mid winter in Alaska. Gale force winds blew somewhere in Alaskan waters on all but one day of January. A cold (10ºF) northwest gale over Shelikof Strait on the 7th caused the 58 foot fishing vessel Hunter to capsize near Cape Unalishagvak due to a heavy buildup of ice from freezing spray. Thanks to proper survival gear onboard and fast action by rescue personnel, all four crew members aboard were rescued with no ill effect other than mild hypothermia. On the 9th, heavy Cook Inlet ice and a strong tidal current broke one of the mooring cables of the 600-foot Seabulk Pride at the port of Nikiski. Rather than risk snapping more lines, the ship cast off and headed south to ice free waters. Other than the broken mooring cable, there was no damage. On the 30th, the 901 foot Hyundai Confidence ran into storm force winds and 17 foot seas 920 miles south of Kodiak. The ship was dead in the water and several of the crew were injured before rescue operations began. The storm of the month was a 944 mb (27.88”) low off the end of the Kamchatka Peninsula on the 8th. This system brought a full 3 days of heavy winds and seas to the Bering, and one of several surges of warm temperatures from the south. Sea ice coverage over the Bering Sea extended down over the south coast of Saint Matthew Island and the north half of Bristol Bay as the month began. By the 10th, the ice edge advanced about 30 miles to the southwest. This was not far from normal. The ice in Bristol Bay then abruptly retreated to close to where it was on the 1st, and out west, the ice began a steady advance, reaching Saint Paul Island on the 29th. After this point, the ice retreated northward throughout the Alaskan sector of the Bering Sea. Cook Inlet was ice covered north of Kalgin Island and over the west coast down to Kamishak Bay on the first of the month. Subzero weather during January's first 10 days, followed by brief and less severe periods of cold, brought the ice cover down as far as Ninilchik, around Augustine Volcano and down to Cape Douglas by the end of the third week. A surge of warmth and southeast winds rapidly cut back the ice everywhere south of the Forelands and Kalgin Island by month's end. Sea surface temperatures were generally 1 to 4ºF warmer than normal over the Bering Sea south of the ice edge. In the Gulf of Alaska, surface water temperatures ranged from 2 to 4ºF above normal in the west and from 4 to 6ºF above normal in the northeast. |
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Summary information is compiled and produced monthly by the Fairbanks Forecast Office of the National Weather Service and the Alaska Climate Research Center, with contributions by Ted Fathauer, Anton Prechtel, and Martha Shulski. Portions of this summary appear in Weatherwise magazine. Preliminary climatological data are used for the graphical products. For official data, please contact the National Climate Data Center. |
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