Tardy termination dust: Area experiencing warmest year in decades

MAT-SU-— As Halloweekend approaches, trick or treaters and parents alike in the Mat-Su Valley would typically struggle to find the perfect costume that will fit over a snowsuit. Alaskans are accustomed to cold temperatures settling in for the month of October, often trudging through snow in search of candy. But with only one day of sub-freezing temperatures recorded, maybe Valley trick or treaters in 2018 can opt for a hoodie or windbreaker instead of the full snowsuit?

Palmer is experiencing it’s warmest year in decades. The average temperature for the month of September was 3.9 degrees above its normal temp of 47.8 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the warmest since 1996. While snow has often fallen and settled in during the month of October, termination dust has just made it on top of Lazy Mountain, still with some 3,000 vertical feet to go before it graces the Valley floor.

“The main reason for the very warm temperatures (warmest September on record, warmest October so far) is the well above normal water temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska. This has combined with a weather pattern in which most of the weather is coming from the south, going directly over those very warm waters,” Bill Ludwig of the National Weather Service said.

For data accumulated by the National Weather Service on temperatures in October (through October 21), temperatures are 8.9 degrees above the normal temperature of 37.2. The first day below freezing was on Oct. 1 when thermometers reached just 32 degrees. The average first day below freezing for Palmer is Sept. 23 and the latest on record was October 13, 2006. The earliest recorded snowfall was August 28, 2018.

Snowfall data for the Mat-Su Valley is not kept by the National Weather Service. Though they do provide statistics for Alaska’s largest city, climates vary in nature between coastal Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. High winds coming off of Knik and the Matanuska Glaciers often change weather patterns that drift in from the coast, so data from Anchorage may be similar but is not conclusive in determining when the first snowfall in the valley may occur.

For records beginning in 1953, the average first day of measurable snowfall, which requires one tenth of an inch or more, is October 16. Anchorage still has not seen it’s first dusting of white stuff and Fairbanks just recently had their first, well beyond their normal first snowfall date. The earliest recorded snowfall in Anchorage was September 21 of 1996, which was the last time Palmer had temperatures as warm as are being experienced currently. The latest recorded snowfall in Anchorage was Nov. 13, 2002, although that record may be broken unless forecasts change over the next two weeks.