Modified: May 17, 2010
Over the years, long term residents of Fairbanks have noticed many changes in our seasonal weather patterns: winters are milder, green-up happens sooner, rivers are breaking up earlier, and summers seem drier. Here are some graphical representations of our local climate over the past 80 years. Mean temperatures have been plotted by month to allow you to see which months have seen the greatest changes. This data mostly comes from the Alaska Climate Research Center, part of the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which has been conducting climate research and compiling and archiving climate data on our state for many years.
Climate data (monthly and yearly tempertature, yearly precipitation, snowfall and snowdepth)
Geophysical Institute at University of Alaska Fairbanks. Observation site, Fairbanks International Airport. http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Climate/Location/TimeSeries/Fairbanks.html
Nenana River break up
Downing, Jason. 2006. Tanana River Yearly Ice Break Up Observed at Nenana, AK (1917-Present), Bonanza Creek LTER-University of Alaska Fairbanks. BNZ:217, http://www.lter.uaf.edu/data_detail.cfm?datafile_pkey=217. NSF Grant numbers DEB-0620579, DEB-0423442, DEB-0080609, DEB-9810217, DEB-9211769, DEB-8702629 and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station RJVA-PNW-01-JV-11261952-231.
Green-up dates
Euskirchen, Eugenie. 2007. Greenup values for interior Alaska 1976-Present, Bonanza Creek LTER-University of Alaska Fairbanks. BNZ:300, http://www.lter.uaf.edu/data_detail.cfm?datafile_pkey=300. NSF Grant numbers DEB-0620579, DEB-0423442, DEB-0080609, DEB-9810217, DEB-9211769, DEB-8702629 and USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station RJVA-PNW-01-JV-11261952-231.
