FAIRBANKS, Alaska — With May just around the corner, Interior Alaska is seeing record-breaking low temperatures that are prompting many Alaskans to ask “Where’s spring?”
It was just 2 degrees above zero at Fairbanks International Airport on Sunday. That new low blew away the old record of 8 above set in 1924, according to Monday’s Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
The frigid temperatures are being caused by cold, dry air from the North Pole and Arctic Ocean being blown over a large part of Alaska. Forecasters said temperatures are not expected to warm up dramatically anytime soon.
The normal high temperature for April 28 in Fairbanks is 53 degrees. Sunday’s high temperature was 37.
Fairbanks is not the only chilly place in the Interior. New record lows also were set at Eagle, Eielson Air Force Base and Delta Junction on Sunday.
The coldest temperature reported Sunday morning was 9 below zero in Circle Hot Springs, about 100 miles north of Fairbanks, and 25 Mile of the Salcha River, about 40 miles south of town. It was 6 below at Smith Lake on the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“It was pretty chilly,” said meteorologist Melissa Keller with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
In addition to the record cold Sunday morning, many places tied or broke records for the coldest high temperature on Saturday. The temperature failed to climb out of the 20s across much of the Interior. The high temperature of 29 degrees at the Fairbanks airport tied the coldest high temperature for that day, which was set in 1935.
“That’s pretty amazing with 17 hours of daylight,” said Ed Plumb at the weather service in Fairbanks.
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