Alaska Statewide Summary
June 2007 | Dry in Southeast and Arctic coast during June
Circulation over Alaska was light for much of the month. The most notable feature was a persistent high pressure area extending from western Canada up to the Alaskan Arctic. Though this did not hold for the whole month, it did bring in warm temperatures and very dry weather to the Alaskan Arctic. In the third week of the month, high pressure developed over the eastern mainland and low pressure subsequently formed over the west. This sequence of patterns resulted in very dry weather over Southeast Alaska and the North Gulf coast, while cool temperatures and generally above normal rainfall prevailed over southwest Alaska.

Following well above normal precipitation in May, the Arctic had near record low precipitation in June. Barrow recorded only 0.01” of precipitation and Prudhoe Bay only 0.04”. As in May, there were no strong temperature departures anywhere in the state.
River levels were low in nearly all basins. Spring breakup finally occurred on the lower Colville River, in the central Arctic, during the first days of the month. Ice jams formed upstream of Colville Village on the 4th, and then downstream on the 5th, causing the airstrip to flood. The ice jams went out on the evening of the 5th, and the river dropped below flood stage by the morning of June 6. From one half to an inch and a half of rain fell in the southeast Interior on the 6th, but due to the very low amount of water in rivers before this rainfall, there was no flooding.

There was an increase of stormy weather in the Alaska Range, though none of the storms was violent, and there were fine, clear days interspersed between the days with foul weather. There were no serious mishaps in the mountains in June, a welcome turn from the tragedies in May.

The thunderstorm season moved ahead decisively. During June, there were 12 days on which the Alaska Lightning Detection System recorded more than 1,000 strikes in Alaska. The most active day was the 30th with 5,485 strikes. Dry weather over the southern mainland was a key contributor to the start of a number of large fires. On the 19th, the Caribou Hills fire started on the Kenai Peninsula. The Su River fire, located about 60 miles north of Anchorage, was started by lightning on the 20th. Both of these fires caused considerable damage. By month's end, the Caribou Hills fire had burned over 55,000 acres, consumed a number of homes and prompted evacuations in nearby neighborhoods. Smoke from both fires caused air quality problems in Anchorage, on the Kenai Peninsula, and in the Susitna Valley during the third week of the month.

At the end of the month, a total of 186,000 acres had burned in Alaska since the start of the 2007 wildfire season. The total would have been considerably greater were it not for the increased rainfall and especially the increased humidity in the Interior zones, where the largest fires typically occurs. The Interior rainfall brought some other benefits, including many beautiful, photogenic days with fine cumulus clouds against blue sky. Long time residents said it was a particularly lovely month of June.

Interior residents reported surprisingly few mosquitoes - perhaps a result of the low winter snowpack - but an abundance of yellowjackets. Plant growth was vigorous, with some Labrador tea blooming the first week of the month and berries growing in great quantity.

Weather at sea in Alaskan waters was, overall, remarkably settled and gentle during June. Gale force winds blew somewhere in Alaskan waters on only 7 days of the month. The storm of the month occurred at a distance from almost all of the state. On the 17th and 18th, a 990 mb (29.24”) low south of the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia came up against a 1042 mb (30.77”) high in the eastern Aleutians. This produced a long southerly fetch of gales over the northwest Pacific, bringing in high seas and widespread rainfall to the western Aleutians and west Bering Sea.

There was one significant mishap at sea during the month. On the evening of the 20th, the 56 foot fishing vessel Magnum set out from Cape Igvak, on the south shore of the Alaska Peninsula, toward its home port in Kodiak. On the large, or synoptic, scale the weather charts for this event were unimpressive. Closer up, on the mesoscale, there was a strong surge of wind over the Alaska Peninsula, which created a sudden northwest gale over a small area, where the Magnum happened to be. The crew estimated that winds were gusting to 60 mph and the seas up to 15 feet. The ship was soon listing dangerously and taking on water, and only a few minutes passed before it sank. The four crew miraculously survived a cold and rough 2.5 days of drifting over lower Shelikof Strait in a small life raft. Periodic light rain provided them some vital drinking water. At mid day of the 23rd, another fishing boat happened upon them and rescued all four. Sea ice was rapidly being cleared from the Bering Sea during the first part of the month, and there was a large extent of open water north of Bering Strait. By mid June, Bering Strait was ice free. The coastal waters from east of Barrow, past Prudhoe Bay to Flaxman Island remained iced in solid through the month. The corridor of open water from Barrow to Point Hope narrowed briefly during the 4th week of June, but overall it increased, as did the open water east of Flaxman Island. At month's end, open water was appearing in Kotzebue Sound. Overall, the extent of sea ice in Alaskan coastal waters during June was much less than normal. Only about one year in six would see so little ice in Alaskan waters during June.
Statewide Extremes
Highest Temperature .95°F Chalkyitsik (5th)
Lowest Temperature .23°F Barrow (1st)
Highest Average .63.5°F Central
Lowest Average .35.5°F Barter Island
Highest Precipitation .15.40" Portage Glacier Visitors Center
Highest Snowfall .45.1" 7,000ft camp Mt. McKinley
.0.2" Colville Village
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Temperature and Precipitation Departure Maps
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The retreat of the ice from the Alaskan northwest coast was not a smooth process, due in part to shifting tides and currents. In the early morning hours of the 12th, a 22 foot skiff was caught in the ice 4 to 5 miles off Kivalina while on a seal hunt. Almost 24 hours later, the 4 people aboard were able to pull out of the ice and head to shore.

Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska were about 1 to 2ºF below normal early in the month and rose to near normal by the end of June. Surface waters around the Aleutians were about 2ºF warmer than normal while waters in the central Bering Sea were 3 to 6ºF colder than normal, reflecting the slow melting of pack ice there. From mid June onward, sea surface temperatures in Norton Sound were about 2ºF warmer than normal. At month's end, the surface waters outside of Kotzebue Sound were as warm as 43ºF, and rapid warming of the sea was underway from Point Hope up to Barrow.

On the 19th, Klyuchevskoy volcano, at the middle of the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, began a series of eruptions which continued for the rest of June. Prevailing westerly winds aloft carried ash clouds to the central Bering Sea and to the western and central Aleutians. Due to the nearly constant overcast cloud cover in these areas, the ash clouds were not readily visible on the Alaska side of the International Dateline.
Posted: July 24, 2007

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 us or the National Climatic Data Center.