Weather Information for Visitors to Alaska

Many requests we receive are in the form of:

This simple sounding request is not easy to fulfill. The writer did not state when or where they planned to visit. Alaska is a large state, and the climatology ranges from temperate rain forests in the southeast, to barren tundra in the north. And because of the extreme northern latitude of much of the state, the weather can vary considerably during the course of a year even at one location.

On this page we have gathered together information and placed in 6 areas that prospective visitors should use to help plan their trips better:

• The Golden Rule
• Current Road Conditions
• Long Range Forecast
• Standard Weather Forecast and Observations
• Climatology
• Daylight
• Things Alaskan....+Search Engines

There is one special rule that has been found to work for most travelers in Alaska, and that is to always be prepared for one season COLDER than the time you are travelling. This is especially important for those who travel early and late in the season. Likewise, if your plans are going to take you into any of Alaska's many mountainous regions, be prepared for cooler temps and higher winds.

Fairbanks Area Highways

Motoring Forecasts for SE Alaska Highways

A source for long range forecasts can be found here. (A FAQ for this information is also available.) Note that you may not find this information completely satisfying. Predictability places severe limits on long range forecasts. To quote from the above FAQ: ` The predictions will not be useful for anyone trying to plan an event for a specific date.` With this in mind, we have included other useful ways of help you plan your trip. For Alaska, you can get:

• 10 Day Surface Temperature Outlook
  • 3 Day Snow Outlook
• 10 Day Surface Precipitation Outlook

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Standard Weather Forecasts and Observations

With the limitations of long range forecasts, prospective visitors might find it useful to watch the weather at the place(s) they will be visiting to get an idea of what to expect. We have three ways to help you with this:

• As the time of your trip approaches, keep a watch on the current weather conditions at the locations you expect to visit on our Current Weather Map. The map has 64 locales around the state, 6 sea buoys, links to the current satellite image for the state, and other current weather information. A must stop for all people planning to visit our state! (A cautionary note: temperatures are usually cooler at night, and in the morning. Keep in mind the time difference between your home, and where you will be visiting. Click here to get the current time in the Alaska Standard Time Zone.)
  
• Check out the short term weather forecasts for the areas you will visit. We make this easy with our Weather Forecast Map. The map has 24 locales and 5 regions around the state. We have also included 19 marine forecasts for our visitors traveling by sea. Some extended and recreational forecasts are also included on the map. Check out the forecasts for your intended destinations to get a feel for what the weather is like there as the time of your departure approaches.
  
• You need not remember to come back to our site everyday to check forecast information. You can have the weather forecast sent to you by email. A free service, we send out the weather forecast for several areas in the state once a day. Sign up a few weeks before your trip, and keeping an eye on the weather is as easy as checking your email! You can unsubscribe from the service when you are done

A final approach to determine what to expect as far as the weather on your trip to Alaska is to look at the climatology of the location(s) you expect to visit. Climatology does not attempt to predict the weather for your trip, rather show you what the historical averages are. If you are a new visitor to Alaska, then a good place to start is here. and this will give you a good idea of the general weather conditions for the location(s) and time of your visit.

Climatology data should also be considered with a critical eye. All weather elements available should be taken into account. For example, lets say you are going to visit Juneau and Fairbanks in July. You will find that Juneau has 17 Average Days of Precipitation. Fairbanks has 12. You may then think that Juneau is only a little wetter then Fairbanks for this period. However, if you also consider the Average Precipitation you will see that Juneau has 4.16 in of rain in July, and Fairbanks only 1.87 in. Hence Juneau receives more than twice the rainfall on average in July then Fairbanks. The point of this is not to belittle Juneau`s weather, rather to make the lay person conscious of the problems interpreting the climatology data. Many people will find it useful to compare the climatology data of their destination(s) with the data for (near) their home town. This provides a basis of reference. For instance, you may find that summer in Fairbanks is like spring at your home, and then you would bring clothes you find comfortable for this type of weather.

We are currently using the nice set of data provided by the Weather Post. They provide a simple format of data for 2000 cities world wide. On the map below is the locations of 28 cities in Alaska they have climatology data for. Click on the area(s) you plan to visit to view their climatology information. If you wish to compare this data to data from your home town area, follow this link. (Use the BACK button on your browser to return here.). For each location, some or all of the following climatological data will be available:

Avg. Temp	Avg. High Temp	Avg. Low Temp	Mean No. Of Days Below 32°F
Record High Temp	Record Low Temp	Avg. Morning Rel. Humidity	Avg. Afternoon Rel. Humidity
Avg. Wind Speed	Normal Monthly Precipitation	Avg. Snowfall	Avg. Days Of Preciptation
Percent of Days With Sunshine	Mean No. of Clear Days	Mean No. of Partly Cloudy Days	Mean No. of Cloudy Days

• OR:
  For a plain language description of several Alaskan Cities.

   

• We also have a number of graphs and data files of climatology Information compiled at this center.
• Other climatology links can be found here.

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Daylight

Many first-time visitors to the Arctic and sub Arctic may not be aware of the extreme variations in daylight during the course of a year at high latitudes. We have produced graphs and tables showing the sunrise and sunset for a dozen locations in the state to help you plan your trip (adjust for daylight savings time ahead one hour from the 1st week in April until the last week in October):

• Web Travel Brouchures
• USA Today Travel Guide
• City Net
• News...articles from past 30 days
• Fairbanks International Ice Carving Contest...March 1997
• Alaska Search Engine
• Alaska On-Line
• USA City Link
• Interactive Map...Courtesy of Lonely Planet
• Alaska's Best...On line Magazine
• FAIRBANKS...Local directory
• Dalton Highway...Picture Tour!
• BLM...Interactive Map (Excellent Recreation Info)
• Arctic Alaska...Excellent Resource Website!
• Nenana Ice Classic...Lists dates of breakup!