Officially, Fairbanks hit 32F for the first time this season on Sunday morning. That means we had a string of 114 freeze-free days.
Unofficially, I have already seen a couple of 32 degree mornings at the cabin, but Sunday was the first hard freeze of the season. The temp when I finally ventured outside was 28F, but judging from the frost on leaves and windshields, I would guess it had dropped a couple of degrees cooler.
A new season has begun in Interior Alaska.
Wildfires within Alaska burned less than half the usual acreage in 2020, which is not really a surprise with an unusually wet summer.
Fairbanks had its 12th warmest and 20th wettest summer in the past 90 years.
Anchorage saw its 23rd warmest and 28th wettest in the past 70 years.
Juneau had its 10th warmest and 15th wettest in the past 81 years.
The western coast of Alaska was just plain wet.
Bristol Bay had some very rough seas during the fishing season, but that didn’t keep them from setting a record year for sockeye salmon.
The Yukon River drainage had no salmon in 2020. No chums. No kings. Nada. The entire fishery was closed.
One bright spot was the amount of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea in August. It was the most we have seen in 15 years.
Denali National Park has already seen 6″ of the white stuff.
Fairbanks has already seen frost.
It was 32F degrees at the cabin at 6am Wednesday morning. A bit early to be scraping the windshield before work, even for us. I did no plant protection, and they took a hit, but hopefully not a direct one.
The plants were covered Wednesday night.
