Climate Watch

By Rick Thoman Alaska Climate Specialist Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy International Arctic Research Center/University of Alaska Fairbanks

To state the obvious, the past several months have been unusually cloudy and wet across western Alaska. But in terms of total rainfall, at least at Nome, this year hardly rates. At Nome Airport, the July through September rainfall of 11.36 inches was well above normal, but not only wasn’t it close to a record, it’s not even in the top ten highest.

However, total rainfall is only one aspect of “wetness.” Another is the frequency of rain. If a lot of the rainfall comes in just a few storms, over several months this will likely seem less rainy than the same amount of rain spread over more days. This year, measurable rain (enough to completely wet the ground) fell on 62 days between July 1 and September 30. As shown in the graphic, that ties with 1989 for the greatest number of wetting days in the late summer season.

This year stands in contrast to late summer 2021, which had almost the same amount of rain (11.87 inches) but that fell on just 52 days. In 2021, more than one third of that total fell in the last week of July. This year, the wettest week (August 30 to September 5) produced a quarter of the late summer total.

Another feature that stands out in the graphic is that despite three straight late summers with more than 50 days with measurable rain, there is in fact no long-term trend toward more rainy days at this time of year, with several years in the 2010s having significantly fewer than average number of wet days.