By THE ALASKA STORY
Monday marks the final day of meteorological summer, the National Weather Service Fairbanks’ office reminded Alaskans this morning, and Alaska is closing it out with a frost advisory and one of Fairbanks’ coldest years in more than half a century.
Through Aug. 30, the average temperature at Fairbanks International Airport was just 28.7 degrees, making 2026 the coldest year-to-date in 54 years — since 1972 — and the 11th-coldest on record, according to the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
The warmest temperature recorded at the airport all year was 81 degrees. Fairbanks reached that mark on three days — once in June and twice in July.
That makes 81 degrees the second-lowest maximum summer temperature on record for Fairbanks. It is also the third consecutive year in which the Golden Heart City has failed to reach 90 degrees.
When Alaska experiences an unusually warm summer, the temperature is often presented as evidence of global warming. When the state experiences a remarkably cool year, however, nobody seems eager to warn about global cooling.
Although one cold season does not disprove long-term climate trends, one hot summer also does not prove them. Weather and climate are not the same. But the contrast offers a useful reminder about how selectively individual weather events can be used to advance a larger political narrative.
The cold is not confined to Interior Alaska.
The National Weather Service in Anchorage issued a frost advisory for higher elevations as an Arctic system departed Southcentral Alaska. Clear skies behind the system will allow daytime heat to escape rapidly overnight, potentially sending temperatures below freezing by Tuesday morning in some of the region’s colder pockets.
Residents of Muldoon, East Anchorage, the Eagle River Valley and Butte were advised to bring sensitive plants indoors or cover them before going to bed Monday night.
Most of Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley are expected to remain above freezing, although overnight temperatures will likely fall into the 30s. Sunshine and warmer air should allow temperatures to rebound Tuesday afternoon.
The calendar may still say August, but Alaska’s weather has strapped on its snowshoes. It’s snowing at Atigun Pass on the Dalton Highway.
The full National Weather Service frost advisory and current forecasts are available from the National Weather Service Anchorage office.
4 thoughts on “Fairbanks records coldest year-to-date since 1972 — but don’t expect talk of ‘global cooling’”
That’s odd. The NWS Alaska Weather Service report on TV a couple of days ago was telling us that Alaska was a couple of degrees warmer than normal. Even the forecaster seemed to be doubtful about that observation! The NWS has been manipulating weather data for years now to conform to their failed global warming narrative. I don’t think anyone with any critical thinking ability believes their BS anymore.
The climate action wackos are trained, indoctrinated and fully brainwashed at UAF. Science, behavioral and cultural programs at UAF include heavy doses of climate change. UA administrators and the Board of Regents are some of the biggest liars and propagandists, all in the pursuit of federal funds for fake science and future enrollment. Meanwhile, the new $310 million coal-fired power plant chugs away, making coal the most important energy resource at the UAF campus. Warmth and lights keeps all souls alive and busy at -40°, studying, lecturing, and opining about the world readying to die because of oil and coal…….the two most vitally important fuels in the far north. Nonsense has replaced common sense at the foolish campus on the hill.
Fairbanks is getting temps 15 degrees below average this summer. There is no global warming. Only changes in global weather patterns, brought on for a variety of reasons that the extremists don’t want you to know about. Weather pattern changes are all across the spectrum. Ask any honest atmospheric scientist.
The weather service has become nothing but an organization used to spread fear in anyone who listens. It’s called weather!!! It’s going to get cold in the winter and hot in the summer. What was the weather like thousands of years ago??? What killed all of the dinosaurs? It sure wasn’t coal and oil!! The weather service needs quit trying to scare everybody. Tell me what it’s going to be and I’ll decide whether I need to be scared or not. Here in Kenai we got a heat advisory and the temp got clear up to 60 degrees. Jeez, give me a break.