Your sunburn can get some relief.
After five days of some of the warmest mid-May weather Southeast Alaska has seen in 74 years, the National Weather Service is expecting rainy, cloudy weather to continue through the first half of the week.
According to the forecast produced by the Juneau Forecast Office, the rain will let up by Thursday, and next weekend is likely to be as sunny as this past weekend.
It is not expected to be nearly as warm the second time around, however. Temperatures at Juneau International Airport — the capital’s official measuring point — were some of the highest ever seen in records that go back to 1936.
Here’s a day by day breakdown of the records broken and unbroken:
• The warm spell began Wednesday, as clear skies allowed Juneau’s long summer daylight to warm the capital city and Southeast Alaska as a whole. Temperatures climbed from 37 degrees just after midnight to 73 degrees by 5 p.m. It was no record, but it was the warmest day of the year to date.
• On Thursday, temperatures at Juneau topped out at 74 degrees, the second-warmest May 12 on the record books. In Sitka, a record of 72 bested an old record that had stood since the end of World War II in 1945. On Annette Island, a record of 75 beat the old record of 73, which had stood since 1942.
• On Friday, Juneau shattered its old high temperature for the date. The new record of 79 was four degrees above the old record, set on that date in 1942. Juneau has not seen an 80-degree day since Aug. 3. Sitka set a record at 76.
• On Saturday, the high at the airport was 77 degrees, four degrees above the record set in 1942. On Annette Island near Ketchikan, the high was 81 degrees — four degrees above a record set in 1973. Sitka also set a record at 78. Up north, Fairbanks broke a 101-year-old high temperature record. The high recorded Saturday at Fairbanks International Airport was 82 degrees, 2 degrees warmer than the previous record set on that date in 1915.
• On Sunday, the high at the airport was 75 degrees, two degrees above the record set in 1993. It was the fifth consecutive day with a high temperature above 70 degrees.
According to measurements kept by the Weather Service, Juneau’s average temperature for May stood Monday morning at 50.4 degrees, 3.8 degrees above normal.
• The Associated Press contributed Fairbanks data to this report.
