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Nome’s 2021-22 Weather: A Record-Wet December, a La Niña Winter and a Warm Spring
December 2021 was Nome's wettest on record, in a winter that was cool overall, and the spring that followed was warm. The National Park Service's Bering Land Bridge National Preserve tracks weather like this to understand daily, monthly and seasonal patterns and shifting climate averages that influence the plants, animals and hydrologic systems of the Preserve. The Nome weather station has recorded temperature and precipitation for over a hundred years, which gives today's changes their context. The data are analyzed together with other park "vital signs" to show how these high-latitude lands are changing.
Serpentine Hot Springs, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. Photo: Ken Hill, NPS.
Climate stations in the Preserve, from north to south: Devil Mountain, Serpentine, Midnight Mountain, Hoodoo Hill and Ella Creek.
Fall 2021: cool and dry
Fall averaged 5.1°F cooler than normal in Nome. November was by far the coldest month, almost 14°F colder than normal, the 5th coldest November in 114 years and the opposite of November 2020, the 4th warmest on record. At Serpentine Hot Springs, where temperatures have been recorded since 2011, it was the coldest November so far: the average was 21.1°F the November before and 1.3°F this time. Devil Mountain, in the northern Preserve, had its second coldest. Every month of the fall was drier than normal, with little precipitation in November.
Fall 2021 daily temperatures at Nome: record maximum (red), record minimum (blue), normal (brown) and observed range (blue bars).
| Fall 2021 at Nome | Average temperature (°F) | Departure from normal (°F) |
|---|---|---|
| September | 42.3 | -0.8 |
| October | 29.8 | -0.6 |
| November | 4.3 | -13.9 |
Winter 2021-22: cool and wet
December brought extreme precipitation and rain-on-snow along Alaska's west coast and into the Interior, and Nome had its wettest December on record: 3.96 inches of melted snow and rain, 377% of normal. After mid-month, temperatures rose above freezing, so what fell was likely a mix of rain and snow. The wettest day was December 19, with 0.58 inches. Between December 24 and 26 an atmospheric river from the tropical Pacific dropped 1.28 inches on the Nome area in a few days; the normal for all of December is 1.05 inches.
December 20, 2021, at the Serpentine Hot Springs climate site, where warm temperatures and winter rain melted the meager snowpack. Image from a remote camera on the climate station, NPS.
January and February were cool and dry, but the winter's total precipitation still came out 0.68 inches above normal. Every winter month was cooler than normal, as a La Niña carried into a second winter; La Niña generally means cooler weather in Alaska. January was the chilly month, almost 5°F below normal. Warm spells came in late December and late February, and a new record high of 41°F was set on February 25.
During a La Niña event Alaska's winters are often cooler than normal because of the position of the Pacific and polar jet streams. Courtesy NWS/NCEP Climate Prediction Center.
Winter 2022 daily temperatures at Nome.
Spring 2022: warm and dry
March ran almost 7°F warmer than normal, April a little over 5°F warmer and May just over 1°F warmer. Record highs came on May 20 and 23. Spring as a whole was 4.4°F warmer than the 1991-2020 normal, the 9th warmest on record in Nome, and since 2014 spring temperatures have been normal to above normal. At Serpentine Hot Springs the average spring temperature over nine years has been about 10°F warmer than when measurements began in 2012 and 2013.
Spring is generally the driest season in the region, and this one was drier than normal still. March had only four days with measurable precipitation. May's total came just short of its normal 0.89 inches.
Spring 2022 daily temperatures at Nome.
Summer 2022, up to August 11
June was 2.4°F warmer than normal, with June 4 to 9 averaging 15°F above normal. June's rainfall of 0.95 inches was close to the 30-year average of 0.99. July rainfall was above normal, 3.11 inches against 2.35, including a daily record of 1.07 inches on July 20, while the month's temperature was just 0.1°F above normal; mid-month cooled off, with a few days near record lows. August started warm, then settled near normal after the 5th, and through August 11 rainfall was about 60% of normal at 0.64 inches. Full summer statistics were promised for the fall.
Summer 2022 temperatures at Nome through August 11.
Sources
- National Park Service, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve/Nome Weather Summary Fall 2021, Winter 2021-2022, and Spring 2022; rewritten in hubnx's own words.