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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Warm and snowy...

The weather bureau came out with their official summary for November (lightly edited for brevity). As expected, the month was warmer with  a lot more snow than normal:(Http://www.arh.noaa.gov/textforecasts.php?type=statement).

Monthly weather summary for November for Fairbanks, Alaska...

November 2015 was warm, wet and snowy with persistent snowfall.
Measurable snow fell on twenty days during the month and a trace of snow fell on 4 days.
The snow depth at the airport was 15 inches at the end of the month.
Season to date snowfall at the airport is now 50.1 inches
with September to November of 2015 ranking as the 5th
snowiest September to November periods on record.
So far, snowfall this year exceeded the snowfall for the entire winter of 2014 to 2015 of 43.8 inches.
A total of 25.4 inches of snow fell during November,which was 12.2 inches above normal.
This ranks as the 7th snowiest November. Nearly all of the precipitation fell as snow except for a brief period of freezing rain that fell on the 26th. A total of 1.78 inches of precipitation
fell at the airport which was 1.11 inches above the normal and ranks as the 5th wettest November.

November 2015 was much warmer than average with an average high temperature of 16.9 degrees which was 6.0 degrees above the normal. The average low temperature was 1.3 degrees which was 7.0 degrees above the normal. The average temperature was 9.1 degrees which was 6.5 degrees above the normal average temperature of 2.6 degrees. This ranks as the 29th warmest November.

Looking forward to December...the average high temperature drops from 7 above on the 1st to 2 above on the 31st. The average low temperature drops from 11 below on the 1st to 16 below on the 31st. In the last 111 years the temperatures have varied from a high of 58 above in 1934 to a low of 62 below in 1961. Average snowfall is 12 inches but has been as much as 50.7 inches in 1984 to as little as a trace in 1969.

December is the darkest month of the year with possible sunshine decreasing from 4 hours and 42 minutes on the 1st to 3 hours and 42 minutes on the solstice. By the 31st possible sunshine increases to 3 hours and 58 minutes.


2 comments:

  1. And I thought Buffalo was bad for winter sunshine-- ah well. Time for inner pursuits, here, though the sun is quite sunny today, and it's chilly but not too cold. Peace, from Kenmore, NY.

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  2. Like I wrote last year at this time (Winter solstice, 12/20/14), the short days that surround the solstice create beautiful sunsets. And while the long dark nights get some people depressed, I always found that if you get outside during the day, even for a short walk at lunch time, the darkness isn't an issue, at least for me. Like the cold weather, it was -10 this morning, you get used to it. Thanks for your comment.

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