Climate Watch
Western Alaska weather is rarely boring and 2021 proved to be no exception. While it was not nearly as mild as some recent years, storminess and associated high precipitation were in the news a lot. While specific weather and climate events impact activities in different ways, here’s a list, in chronological order only, of a few notable weather and climate events from the past year.
Early spring storminess: following a comparatively non-stormy winter, six storms with blizzard or near-blizzard conditions rolled through the region between March 6 and April 12.
Late spring warmth followed the stormy weather, culminating in a high temperature of at Nome of 71°F on May 25. This is the second earliest date in the year with a high of 70°F or higher.
However, early June brought an unusually stubborn cold low pressure aloft that produced accumulating snow three straight days June 4-6, with a total of about 2.5 inches accumulation in town.
July brought cool, cloudy and wet weather. Total rainfall of 6.48 inches was the second highest total for July in Nome climate history, and only
July 2027 had more rain. The rains culminated the last week of the
month with prolonged downpours and some flooding on area rivers.
A brief heat wave August 3-4 produced the highest temperatures of the summer, including 79°F at Nome Airport and temperatures rose into the upper 80s north of Salmon Lake. This was followed a week later by a widespread early freeze. The second half of September brought an early taste of winter to many areas with a short-lived accumulation of snow, even near sea level.
Cold weather settled in before Halloween and continued with only a couple of brief interruptions until the second week in December. Helped by the fourth coldest November on record, sea ice growth in Norton Sound and Alaska side of the northern Bering Sea was the earliest since 2012.
The year ended up with a series of storms that resulted in a lot of snow and rain, and at Nome, damaging winds. The peak wind of 70 mph on the evening of December 28 was the highest speed reported at the airport since the 71 mph on December 29, 1977.
For the year as a whole, the average temperature at the Nome Airport was 26.1°F. This is 1.9°F below the 1991-2020 normal and coldest year since 2011. However, prior to the 1970s this would have been an average year temperature-wise. Total precipitation though was really outstanding. While we have to estimate the precipitation during the big storm in early March due to the National Weather Service’s automated weather station being offline for five days, with (near) record high precipitation in March, July and December, it’s no wonder that 2021, with an estimated 25.11 inches ranks in the top five wettest years in the past 115 years, though well behind the 29.49 inches of rain and melted snow that fell in 1922.