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Land of the melting Fairbanksans
Jul. 9th, 2009 05:08 pmWednesday was the hottest day in Fairbanks in almost 15 years.
A record high temperature of 90 degrees was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport at 4:35 p.m., the first 90-degree day in Fairbanks since Aug. 5, 1994, according to statistics kept by the National Weather Service.
“That’s our longest 90-degree drought on record,” meteorologist Rick Thoman said. “We’ve never gone anywhere close to 15 years without a 90-degree temperature.”
The 90-degree reading broke the old record high of 88 degrees set in 1964.
It marked the seventh day in a row the temperature in Fairbanks hit 80 or higher, the longest such stretch since June 2004, meteorologist Matthew Kidwell said.
The heat wave baking Fairbanks is being caused by a high pressure ridge that has been sitting over the Interior for the past week.
Smoke from wildfires that had been blanketing the Tanana Valley and obscuring the sun cleared out on Wednesday, which helped push the temperature higher, Thoman said. The high on Tuesday in Fairbanks was 84 degrees.
“The smoke might have been worth a degree or two (on Tuesday),” Thoman said. “The air mass is much warmer today.”
Local residents were soaking up the heat in different ways. The beach at Chena Lakes Recreation Area was packed on Wednesday, park ranger Pete Vogt said. At 5 p.m., Vogt estimated there were still 700 or 800 people on the beach at Chena Lake.
( more )
Yeah..it was SO hot in the house yesterday. I felt like swimming in the Chena myself haha. Then a storm came last night (finally!) and cooled it down a lot. Someone said there was a crazy high storm cloud over McKinley
I went to lunch with Becky today! It was cool haha
Today's trivia: After a three-week vacation, your IQ can drop by as much as 20 percent
A record high temperature of 90 degrees was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport at 4:35 p.m., the first 90-degree day in Fairbanks since Aug. 5, 1994, according to statistics kept by the National Weather Service.
“That’s our longest 90-degree drought on record,” meteorologist Rick Thoman said. “We’ve never gone anywhere close to 15 years without a 90-degree temperature.”
The 90-degree reading broke the old record high of 88 degrees set in 1964.
It marked the seventh day in a row the temperature in Fairbanks hit 80 or higher, the longest such stretch since June 2004, meteorologist Matthew Kidwell said.
The heat wave baking Fairbanks is being caused by a high pressure ridge that has been sitting over the Interior for the past week.
Smoke from wildfires that had been blanketing the Tanana Valley and obscuring the sun cleared out on Wednesday, which helped push the temperature higher, Thoman said. The high on Tuesday in Fairbanks was 84 degrees.
“The smoke might have been worth a degree or two (on Tuesday),” Thoman said. “The air mass is much warmer today.”
Local residents were soaking up the heat in different ways. The beach at Chena Lakes Recreation Area was packed on Wednesday, park ranger Pete Vogt said. At 5 p.m., Vogt estimated there were still 700 or 800 people on the beach at Chena Lake.
( more )
Yeah..it was SO hot in the house yesterday. I felt like swimming in the Chena myself haha. Then a storm came last night (finally!) and cooled it down a lot. Someone said there was a crazy high storm cloud over McKinley
I went to lunch with Becky today! It was cool haha
Today's trivia: After a three-week vacation, your IQ can drop by as much as 20 percent
