January 2018 was warmer and snowier than normal in the Fairbanks area. The mean temperature of 6.0 below was 1.9 degrees above the normal of 7.9 below and ranked as the 42nd warmest of 110 years of record.
The highest temperature was 33 degrees above which occurred on the 17th. The lowest temperature was 33 below which occurred on 26th and 29th and is the coldest temperature recorded at the Fairbanks Airport this season.
14.1 inches of snow fell at the Fairbanks Airport which is 3.8 inches above the normal January snowfall of 10.3 inches and ranked as the 17th snowiest January of 109 years of record. The
heaviest 24 hour snowfall occurred on the 17th when 6.1 inches of wet and heavy snow fell in a narrow band over the west side of Fairbanks. Both rain and snow fell and made for difficult travel
conditions as the rain fell and then froze on cold road surfaces. 1.10 inches of precipitation fell in fairbanks during the month of January which was 0.52 inches above the normal precipitation of 0.58 inches. For the 2017 to 2018 snowfall season 50.9 inches of snow has fallen at the Fairbanks Airport which is 2.7 inches above the normal season to date.
Looking forward to February the climatologically coldest part of the winter is now behind us and available day light continues to increase at nearly seven minutes per day. A noticeable diurnal
temperature range will again be felt especially by the end of the month. The average temperature increases from 7 below on the 1st to 4 degrees above on the 28th. Temperature extremes have ranged from 50 above in 1943 to 58 below in 1947 and 1993. The normal precipitation for February is 0.42 inches. The average snowfall in February is 8.1 inches. Available sunshine increases from six hours and 59 minutes on the 1st to 10 hours and 2 minutes on the 28th.
The outlook for Fairbanks for February from the Climate Prediction Center calls for near normal temperatures and precipitation.
Chart from Alaska Climate Research Center
Well January had a little bit of everything, snow, rain, ice storms, warm and cold temps, but still no 40 below, so that's something I guess. Now looking forward to the longer and warmer days, but I hope not too much warmer weather, that's soon to come. It's the best time of the year up here!
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