Unfortunately winter weather for Alaska and the Kenai Peninsula is not over yet. The National Weather Service in Anchorage is forecasting tonight to be mostly clear with a low of zero with winds from the north to be between 15 and 20mph with gusts as high as 35mph. Tomorrow night, the forecast is going to get even colder with a low of -4 and wind gusts as high as 20mph. Parts of the Eastern Kenai Peninsula are set to see even higher wind gusts.
AccuWeather Global Weather Center – April 8, 2021 – A historic cold blast settling into Alaska this week will send temperatures plummeting far below zero, which could topple century-old low-temperature records in one city and even a longstanding state record.
The severe cold comes at a time when Alaska normally starts to thaw out from brutal winter weather.
“April is typically the time of year when Alaska is steadily climbing out of the Arctic’s icy grip, with average high temperatures rising 10-20 degrees Fahrenheit from the beginning of the month to the end in places such as Utqiaġvik (formally Barrow), Fairbanks and Anchorage,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Renee Duff said.
High temperatures in Anchorage, Alaska, usually start April in the upper 30s, before reaching the lower 50s by the end of the month. Fairbanks rivals this spring warmup average by rising from the mid-30s in early April and ending up near the mid-50s by the last day of the month.
“But that has been far from the truth so far this month, with temperatures running 17 degrees below normal month-to-date in Fairbanks,” Duff said.
This image of temperatures was captured around 2:00 a.m. AKDT on Thursday, April 8, 2021, and shows that many areas across Alaska are experiencing extremely low temperatures.
It’s been a topsy-turvy start to April in Fairbanks. The city began the month with a high of 11, and low temperatures that didn’t reach above zero degrees. Around Easter, the city’s temperatures nearly recovered, just a couple degrees below the average high, but this was short-lived as temperatures tanked again to fall below -20, despite average lows being around 15 degrees.
This Arctic air has no intention of leaving Alaska quickly, as conditions are anticipated to be even colder as this week concludes. While Fairbanks usually sits at a high of 40 in early April, forecasters are predicting that temperatures in the city won’t rise above 7 degrees on Friday, a whopping 33 degrees below normal.
“The next three days will bring historic-level cold for this time of year to parts of mainland Alaska. The state record low for April of -50F (-45.6C) might be broken,” Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said on Twitter.
“A cold snap this extreme in April hasn’t been experienced in the Fairbanks area since 1911, when three consecutive record lows were set from April 9-11,” Duff said. Two of these record lows are likely to be challenged during the latest cold wave, including Thursday night’s record of minus 16 F and Friday night’s record of minus 32 F.
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