That's crazy..
Aug. 3rd, 2009 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glacier_kittyWith the final numbers in the books, the National Weather Service on Saturday confirmed what residents in Alaska’s second-largest city already knew — it was a hot, dry month.
In fact, July 2009 will go down in the record books as the driest July in more than 100 years of weather records at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
Only six hundredths of an inch of rain — including 0.02 of an inch Friday night — fell at Fairbanks International Airport. The mark broke the old record of .12 of an inch in 1927.
It was also the second-warmest July on record with an average temperature of 66.5 degrees. Only July 1975, with an average temperature of 68.4 degrees, was warmer. It was the fourth-warmest month ever observed in Fairbanks.
The average high temperature for July was 78.6 degrees, tying it with June 1969 for the warmest average high temperature of any month since 1904.
“It’s really quite amazing,” said meteorologist Rick Thoman at the weather service office. “That is very hot.”
The high temperature every day in July was more than 70 degrees, the first time that’s happened since 1927.
The stats just keep coming.
• There were 15 days in July that the high temperature hit 80 degrees or above.
• The high temperature of 91 degrees on July 8 was the first 90-degree day at the airport in 15 years.
• There were only two days with measurable rainfall at the airport — 0.04 of an inch on July 15 and 0.02 of an inch on Friday night.
The hot, dry weather has fueled wildfires across the Interior that have been burning for more than a month, most notably the 438,000-acre Railbelt Complex fire that is burning 60 miles southwest of Fairbanks and the Wood River 1 Fire 20 miles south of town, which was up to 87,500 acres as of Friday.
Smoke from both fires has often left Fairbanks shrouded in an acrid, fog-like haze that forced the cancellation of multiple sporting events, several in the past few days.
“It’s been amazingly dry,” said Fairbanks fire management officer Robert Schmoll with the state Division of Forestry.
Typically, rain in early July puts an end to the fire season, Schmoll said. As of Saturday night, there were 77 active fires burning in Alaska, and more than 2 million acres had burned.
“When you get these long dry periods like this, these extremes, that’s when you get these big fires,” Schmoll said. “Until we get a weather change, you end up chasing your tails.”
July is normally the second-wettest month of the year, behind August with an average of 1.73 inches of precipitation, Thoman said.
The airport was by far the driest spot in town, Thoman said. Considerably more rainfall was measured elsewhere, particularly east of town, he said. A total of 1.05 inches was recorded at 42 Mile Steese Highway, and North Pole received more than a half inch of rain.
Ironically, last year at this time Fairbanks was experiencing the worst flooding since 1967 after one of the wettest Julys on record. More than 4 inches of rain fell in July 2008, and Gov. Sarah Palin ended up declaring a disaster as a result of flooding on the Tanana River in Salcha and Fairbanks.
It’s been so hot and dry that Tanana Valley State Fair director Randi Carnahan is actually hoping for some rain and cooler weather before the fair opens on Friday. Rain is usually the fair’s worst enemy, and it’s a running joke in Fairbanks that when the fair opens, so too do the skies.
“I’m hoping it does rain a little bit to keep dust down,” Carnahan said Friday. “We’d like it to cool off a little bit. Hot weather like that is really hard on the animals. 70 to 75 is the optimal temperature. It’s better for the animals and better for the public.”
The Chena and Salcha rivers each dropped about 2 1/2 feet in July, according to Larry Rundquist at the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center in Anchorage. They started the month a foot above normal and ended the month a foot and a half below normal.
The low water conditions in the Chena haven’t posed a problem for Riverboat Discovery cruise boats on the lower river, in large part because the hot weather has pushed the glacially fed Tanana River up so high that it acts like a dam and backs water up into the lower five miles of the Chena, company president Ryan Binkley said.
“Warm weather helps us,” he said on Friday. “The warmer it is in the Alaska Range, the higher the Tanana gets. The last few days, it’s been rising like crazy.”
Indeed, the National Weather Service issued a statement on Saturday warning that the Tanana River might reach near bankfull at some locations upriver of Fairbanks next week and could potentially cause minor flooding in low-lying areas.
The rise is a result of warm temperatures in the eastern Interior that produced a significant amount of glacial melting and high-elevation snowmelt runoff from the Alaska Range into the Tanana and other glacier-fed streams.
Pic of the day:
Now there's a new fire at the Chatanika River 5 miles from the top of Murphy Dome. Eesh..
Today was a nice day to sit outside though. Warm, sunny..the exact opposite of last August. Ryan was at driving class and mom and I had a few hours to ourselves..we went shopping and went out to eat at Chena's Grill (or whatever it's called haha) on the river. We sat outside till bees swarmed us (we seem to have a bee infestation..). It was lovely. :D Ryan has driving class tomorrow too so we'll have free time again!
Today's trivia: A New Yorker could eat out every night of his or her life and never eat at the same restaurant twice
In fact, July 2009 will go down in the record books as the driest July in more than 100 years of weather records at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
Only six hundredths of an inch of rain — including 0.02 of an inch Friday night — fell at Fairbanks International Airport. The mark broke the old record of .12 of an inch in 1927.
It was also the second-warmest July on record with an average temperature of 66.5 degrees. Only July 1975, with an average temperature of 68.4 degrees, was warmer. It was the fourth-warmest month ever observed in Fairbanks.
The average high temperature for July was 78.6 degrees, tying it with June 1969 for the warmest average high temperature of any month since 1904.
“It’s really quite amazing,” said meteorologist Rick Thoman at the weather service office. “That is very hot.”
The high temperature every day in July was more than 70 degrees, the first time that’s happened since 1927.
The stats just keep coming.
• There were 15 days in July that the high temperature hit 80 degrees or above.
• The high temperature of 91 degrees on July 8 was the first 90-degree day at the airport in 15 years.
• There were only two days with measurable rainfall at the airport — 0.04 of an inch on July 15 and 0.02 of an inch on Friday night.
The hot, dry weather has fueled wildfires across the Interior that have been burning for more than a month, most notably the 438,000-acre Railbelt Complex fire that is burning 60 miles southwest of Fairbanks and the Wood River 1 Fire 20 miles south of town, which was up to 87,500 acres as of Friday.
Smoke from both fires has often left Fairbanks shrouded in an acrid, fog-like haze that forced the cancellation of multiple sporting events, several in the past few days.
“It’s been amazingly dry,” said Fairbanks fire management officer Robert Schmoll with the state Division of Forestry.
Typically, rain in early July puts an end to the fire season, Schmoll said. As of Saturday night, there were 77 active fires burning in Alaska, and more than 2 million acres had burned.
“When you get these long dry periods like this, these extremes, that’s when you get these big fires,” Schmoll said. “Until we get a weather change, you end up chasing your tails.”
July is normally the second-wettest month of the year, behind August with an average of 1.73 inches of precipitation, Thoman said.
The airport was by far the driest spot in town, Thoman said. Considerably more rainfall was measured elsewhere, particularly east of town, he said. A total of 1.05 inches was recorded at 42 Mile Steese Highway, and North Pole received more than a half inch of rain.
Ironically, last year at this time Fairbanks was experiencing the worst flooding since 1967 after one of the wettest Julys on record. More than 4 inches of rain fell in July 2008, and Gov. Sarah Palin ended up declaring a disaster as a result of flooding on the Tanana River in Salcha and Fairbanks.
It’s been so hot and dry that Tanana Valley State Fair director Randi Carnahan is actually hoping for some rain and cooler weather before the fair opens on Friday. Rain is usually the fair’s worst enemy, and it’s a running joke in Fairbanks that when the fair opens, so too do the skies.
“I’m hoping it does rain a little bit to keep dust down,” Carnahan said Friday. “We’d like it to cool off a little bit. Hot weather like that is really hard on the animals. 70 to 75 is the optimal temperature. It’s better for the animals and better for the public.”
The Chena and Salcha rivers each dropped about 2 1/2 feet in July, according to Larry Rundquist at the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center in Anchorage. They started the month a foot above normal and ended the month a foot and a half below normal.
The low water conditions in the Chena haven’t posed a problem for Riverboat Discovery cruise boats on the lower river, in large part because the hot weather has pushed the glacially fed Tanana River up so high that it acts like a dam and backs water up into the lower five miles of the Chena, company president Ryan Binkley said.
“Warm weather helps us,” he said on Friday. “The warmer it is in the Alaska Range, the higher the Tanana gets. The last few days, it’s been rising like crazy.”
Indeed, the National Weather Service issued a statement on Saturday warning that the Tanana River might reach near bankfull at some locations upriver of Fairbanks next week and could potentially cause minor flooding in low-lying areas.
The rise is a result of warm temperatures in the eastern Interior that produced a significant amount of glacial melting and high-elevation snowmelt runoff from the Alaska Range into the Tanana and other glacier-fed streams.
Pic of the day:
Now there's a new fire at the Chatanika River 5 miles from the top of Murphy Dome. Eesh..
Today was a nice day to sit outside though. Warm, sunny..the exact opposite of last August. Ryan was at driving class and mom and I had a few hours to ourselves..we went shopping and went out to eat at Chena's Grill (or whatever it's called haha) on the river. We sat outside till bees swarmed us (we seem to have a bee infestation..). It was lovely. :D Ryan has driving class tomorrow too so we'll have free time again!
Today's trivia: A New Yorker could eat out every night of his or her life and never eat at the same restaurant twice
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-08-04 10:41 pm (UTC)