Climate Watch

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

March in Nome finished up with more than 1.5 inches of precipitation (melted snow), making this sixth out of the past seven Marches to have twice or more the 1991-2020 normal.

Precipitation was close to normal in February, so the combined late winter (February and March) precipitation of 2.45 inches was nearly one and a half times normal. This year nearly all the precipitation fell as snow, unlike some recent years when one or more storms also included rain. late winters (1944 included significant

So, is the late winter becoming rain). stormier? When we look at winds, we find

Well, certainly since 2018 it has that high precipitation late winters been, and these are years when the are nearly always windier than average. Bering Sea ice extent has not been But the reverse is not true: comparatively

Barge caught after drifting

notably high in late winter. The dry late winters are graphic plots the total precipitation sometimes windy, too. Since 2018,

loose in Bering Strait

each February-March since 1931 the windiest February to March was (when the full time Weather Bureau in 2022, which was the only late office opened in Nome) and on top winter in the past seven years not to of that I’ve added the seven-year be excessively snowy. Other years average. Unsurprisingly, the peak that were windy but saw well below since 2018 is not only a dramatic increase normal precipitation in late winter included from the pre-2018 period, it’s 2000, 2002 and 2013. These the highest in the past 94 years. However, are late winters when high pressure it’s only a little bit higher than dominates to the north and northwest the seven-year average peak in the of Nome and there’s lots of cold mid-1940s. This stormy era was not north to northeast winds. as persistent as 2018-2024 but featured three really high precipitation