Climate Watch
By Rick Thoman Alaska Climate Specialist Alaska Center for Climate
Assessment and Policy Over the years, Christmas in Nome has brought every kind of weather you can get in in December. Clear and cold to stormy and mild and everything in-between.
Nome’s coldest Christmas was in 1954, when temperatures stayed between -23°F and -30°F throughout the day. Two other years, 1957 and 1961 also saw temperatures dip into the -30s°F below on Christmas.
In recent years it’s not been so cold. In fact, over the past 20 years the temperature has stayed below zero on Christmas only twice, 2005 and last year. On the flip side, there have been four Christmas Days with high temperatures above freezing, with the warmest being 37°F in 1997 and on Christmas 1924 the temperature only got down to 30°F.
When we line up temperatures for every Christmas since 1906, we see that while there have been big swings, over the past 114 years there is no long-term trend for warmer or colder Christmas Days, though most of the coldest Christmas Days occurred prior to 1970.
Of course, temperatures are just part of Christmas weather. Christmas 2004 was the snowiest on record and saw blizzard conditions through mid-afternoon but the storm ended in the early evening leaving temperature in the low 30s°F and breaks in the clouds. So, whatever 2020 brings for Christmas weather, from the ACCAP family at UAF to you and your family, we wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year.