Climate Watch
By Rick Thoman Alaska Climate Specialist Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy International Arctic Research Center/University of Alaska Fairbanks
1980s the snow water equivalent was From Golovin and White Mountain measured for the Soil Conservation eastward the snowpack is significantly Service (now Natural Resources above normal.
Conservation Service) in the early The only area in western Alaska spring at Cottonwood, north of Salmon showing below normal snowpack is Lake. on the northern Seward Peninsula
In just the past couple of years climate from the Shishmaref area southwest The seasonal snowpack is an important analysis models have advanced towards Ikpek Lagoon. player in the climate system enough that we can now get a reasonable There is still plenty of time for the in the Arctic, influencing the ecosystem idea of the snowpack all across snowpack water content to change in complex and long-lasting the Arctic as it evolves through dramatically before spring melt gets ways and effects how people move the season. The graphic shows the underway. The combined February
Barge caught after drifting
across the land. modeled snow/water equivalent relative and March precipitation has been The amount of water in the snowpack to the 1991-2020 average across well above the longterm normal five
loose in Bering Strait remains important in the spring the region as of mid-January. To of the past six years, though the ongoing as the snow melts and the water keep it simple, I show just three categories: El Niño tilts the odds to favor flows into rivers. Like most other environmental above normal, near normal below normal late winter snowfall. measurements, observations and below normal. However it turns out, we have the in western Alaska of the water The Nome area, most of the central tools to give us the overall picture, in the snowpack have always been and western Seward Peninsula, but that does not diminish the need very sparse. Until 2019 the National the Yukon River delta and most of St. for detailed local information that Weather Service in Nome reported Lawrence Island show a snowpack only actual observations can provide. this daily, and for a few years in the that is in the “near normal” category.