Fall 2019 in the Arctic Parks: Warm, Record Snow and Record-Low Chukchi Sea Ice

Five parks in northern Alaska, the Arctic Network, saw a warm fall in 2019 that included a record snowstorm at Bettles and the least Chukchi Sea ice in the satellite record. The National Park Service summarized the season for Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve and the Western Arctic parklands.

A climate station at Howards Pass, Noatak National Preserve (NPS photo by Ken Hill).

Why the parks track weather

Alaska has warmed over the past 50 years, and fall temperatures rose most in the central interior, on the west coast and on the north slope. Falling sea ice has been a factor, because sea ice and temperature are strongly linked in northern Alaska. Sea ice extent and volume have shrunk over 30 years, and north Pacific sea-surface temperatures have run above normal for several years, giving record warmth in northwest Alaska. Weather and climate drive how ecosystems are built and work, and the Arctic parklands are changing fast.

The parks, which also include Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Kobuk Valley National Park and Noatak National Preserve, monitor climate with remote stations recording temperature, precipitation, wind speed and direction, soil temperature, humidity, snow depth and solar radiation. Long-term National Weather Service stations at Bettles, Kotzebue and Nome serve as index sites for comparing current conditions with the climatological normal, the 30-year average, which was 1981-2010 at the time.

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve

Fall temperatures at Serpentine Hot Springs have risen since year-round measurements began in 2011. The fall of 2018 was the warmest on record, and 2019 was right at average for the nine-year record. Its monthly averages are in the table below.

Aerial view of Serpentine Hot Springs (NPS photo by Ken Hill).

Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve

At Bettles, 2019 was the third wettest and seventh warmest fall (September to November) on record. A storm on November 26 and 27 dropped 25.0 inches of snow, breaking the old two-day record of 23.8 inches set in 1973, and also broke the three-day record (28.4 inches) and the four-day record (28.6 inches). Snowfall records there go back to 1951.

Western Arctic parklands

At Kotzebue it was the eighth warmest and 11th wettest fall since continuous records began in 1935. November was the 27th straight month of above-normal temperatures there. Kotzebue lies 30 miles southeast of Cape Krusenstern National Monument.

Sea ice and wind

Arctic sea ice had its second-lowest extent across the Arctic in the satellite record, which began in 1979, and the combined Chukchi and Beaufort seas extent was the fourth lowest. Ice grew quickly as temperatures dropped in mid-November, but a warm storm with south winds in late November halted growth in the Chukchi Sea and began eating away the thin new ice. By December the Chukchi Sea's ice extent was the lowest on record.

The same November 26 storm hit Kotzebue and was recorded at an NPS weather station at Sisiak, 50 miles east of Kelly Ranger Station on the Noatak River. The 62 mph gust there was the second highest at the site since 2012, and the top gust in Kotzebue was 53 mph.

Sources

• National Park Service, Fall 2019 Weather Summary for Arctic Parks; rewritten in hubnx's own words.