Spring Temperature Anomalies

The cold spring over Interior Alaska is fading into the past now as "insta-summer is upon us: the high was 77ºF at Fairbanks on Saturday and snow is melting fast at higher elevations. This has pushed rivers draining the uplands well up, though so far no flooding on the Chena or Salcha.

For the spring as a whole (Mar-Apr-May), the anomalies are not especially remarkable, and will be even less so by the end of the month. Low level temperature anomalies from the NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis through May 24th, are depicted below for Alaska and vicinity, The warm anomaly over the Arctic Ocean north of Wrangel Island is much more impressive than the cold anomalies over Alaska.

Courtesy of NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis

The cold temperatures show up in this short loop of weekly temperature anomalies (ºC) since March 1st: