Saturday, August 31, 2013

Record Cold in the Northern Interior

Photo Courtesy of the FAA
Update: Brian has a helpful post on the very warm summer at Anchorage and Fairbanks.

A cold airmass and clear skies allowed for temperatures to plunge to record low levels in the northern Interior.

Most notably,  Bettles recorded a low of 15ºF Saturday morning. This is by far the lowest temperature of record at Bettles in August. The previous record at the Bettles in August was 22ºF on August 30, 1969. At old Bettles, about four miles downriver from the current townsite, a low of 20ºF was measured on August 24, 1948.

Other low temperatures included 17ºF at both Chandalar DOT and Coldfoot DOT and a chilly 13F at the Norutak Lake RAWS west of Bettles. These are close to, but not at the record low temperature for the month of August in the state.