Alaska’s capital city has had a full year without a cold month.
According to figures from the National Weather Service in Juneau, September temperatures averaged 51.2 degrees, 1.2 degrees above normal.
Every month since September 2015 has averaged above-normal temperatures in Juneau. In September 2015, temperatures were 0.8 degrees below normal. That’s the only month below normal in the past two and a half years — March 2014 averaged 2.3 degrees below normal, according to the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
According to an analysis from the Weather Service office in the Mendenhall Valley, the warm temperatures in September this year were driven by a “significantly warmer than normal Gulf of Alaska and a prevailing storm track that consistently brought warm, moist air from more southerly latitudes.”
That moist air brought above-normal rainfall to accompany the higher-than-normal temperatures.
Measurements at Juneau International Airport, the city’s official measuring point, indicated 11.64 inches of rain — 3 inches above normal for the month.
Temperatures dipped below freezing in the Mendenhall Valley at the end of the month, but temperatures at the airport did not measure a below-freezing mark.
The lowest temperature of the month was 33 degrees on Sept. 29; the highest was 69 degrees on Sept. 3.
October is traditionally the wettest month of the year in Juneau and a gateway to winter. While the month has begun dry, it has seen temperatures closer to normal and even below normal.
The first below-freezing temperature of the season was seen on Oct. 1, and termination dust has been seen on the higher peaks near Juneau.
