With the specter of rising temperatures and meltdown of summer sea ice haunting Alaska’s climate outlook, a dollop of liquid cold gave Barrow a startling surprise last month.
The sun rose on Dec. 1, weeks after its official disappearance, according to the Alaska Climate Research Center in a dispatch about the 12th month’s climate in the Far North state.
In a rare optical effect, there was looming of the sun above the horizon at Barrow on the first of December On this date the sun is always well below the horizon at Barrow, having set for the winter one week prior.
This time, however, very cold air near the ground refracted the suns rays northward beyond their usual range. In addition, some clouds formed about 6 miles above sea level, and provided a mirror to reflect the suns image north to Barrow.
So, even though Barrow was theoretically dark on the first of December, it was quite bright this year, even though the almanacs do not show the sun rising there until the 23rd of January.
More Alaska climate weirdness was reported by the National Climate Data Center in a December review.
“Heavy rains, strong onshore winds, high tide and storm surge, and potentially frozen ground contributed to flooding between Chignik Lake and Port Heiden on the Alaska Peninsula December 1-3, 2007. … Three houses in the low-lying lake shore area were inundated, with one house floating off its foundation, a road culvert was damaged, and the road over the culvert was washed out. Damage estimates for this probable record flood event were nearly $700,000.”
Despite the oddities — and the incredible meltback of sea ice during summer and fall — Alaska experienced a luke-warmer-than-average year on land, according to the NCDC. 2007 gave America’s Arctic state the 15th warmest year on record, with temperatures averaging only 1.51 °F above the 1971-2000 average.
A review of the Fairbanks climate during 2007 posted online this week reported nothing dramatic.
“Overall, the year was just a bit warmer than normal with a mean annual temperature of 27.9 °F, almost 1 °F above average,” wrote ACRC climatologist Martha Shulski. “Precipitation totaled about an inch more than normal with 11.35 inches for the year, though snowfall was only half of the normal 68 inches with 33.5 for the calendar year.”
Other climate stats from the NCDC for Alaska:
- December was about 3.4 °F above average, the 18th warmest December since 1918.
- The fourth quarter of 2007 was 10th warmest, simmering about 4.25 ° above average.
- From July to December, Alaska baked about 3.31 °F above average, the fourth warmest on record.
