Anchorage just experienced its warmest October in nearly a century, while Fairbanks had its third-warmest October on record.
The National Weather Service attributes this to persistent southerly winds between a high near the British Columbia coast and low pressure in the western Bering Sea.
Rick Thoman is climate science and services manager for the weather service in Alaska.
He says the average temperature last month in Anchorage was 43 degrees. That’s the warmest since records there began in 1916. The normal average October temperature is 34.8 degrees.
Fairbanks saw an average temperature last month of 36.1 degrees. Only 1923 and 1938 had warmer Octobers.
Thoman says Fairbanks recorded seven-tenths of an inch of snow last month, the lowest since agency observations began in 1930. Normal October snowfall is 10.8 inches.
