Climate Watch

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

Sunshine during February increases rapidly, both in duration and in the amount of heating received from the sun as the sun is higher in the sky each day.

At Nome, possible sunshine increases by about six and half minutes every day in February, which adds up to three hours more sunshine at the end of the month compared to February 1. However, while temperatures aren’t typically quite as low as in January, the increase in February is slight. This is because the land and nearby ocean are (usually) fully snow covered, so while the amount of heating from the sun is increasing, most of that heat is reflected back to space by the bright white snow cover. As a result, it’s not unusual for February to be the coldest month of the winter. That happens about one third of the time in Nome. Conversely, areas in the boreal forest of Interior Alaska (like Koyuk and Elim) have February average temperatures that are significantly higher than in January because the much darker surface afforded by spruce trees “captures” more of the solar heating.

For Nome, the February average high temperature is 17°F and the average low temperature 1°F, that only varies by about one degree from the start to the end of the month.

During the past 117 years, February temperatures have ranged from 48°F in 1986 to -42°F on eight separate days, most recently in 1978.

February averages about 15 inches of snow, but totals have exceeded two feet seven times since 1907, most recently in 2019. Since the late 1990s, February has typically been winder than in January but not as windy as November and December. However, the very stormy February 2019 had the highest average wind speed of any month in the past 25 years.