Summer Sun Stats

We have had the hottest June EVER in Anchorage. I exaggerate not. Not only have we had an Alaskan heat wave for the past two weeks, but the forecast promises more of the same. 

Normal June: average high temperature is 63 degrees
June 2013: average high temperature is 70 degrees (from June 1st through 21st)
We are 7 degrees above the normal average high temperature. WOW!

Normal June: 3 days will be 70+ degrees
June 2013: 15 days hit 70+ degrees  (from June 1st through 21st)
I read online that "The temperature in Anchorage creeps above 69 degrees Fahrenheit an average of just 12 days a year." It's only June and we've had 15 such days already. 9 days the temperature was 75+ degrees. 

Normal Summer: no days of 80+ degrees
June 18, 2013: 87 degrees! (some thermometers showed 90+ degrees)
This is a new record high temperature for Anchorage. (Mark thinks they’ve moved the official location where they record temperatures, so is it really a new high?!)

Friday was the summer solstice and it was cold. The high for the day was 57 degrees which was the lowest high for the month. I don't think you'll find too many Alaskan complaining, though. We Alaskans melt with too much heat. I celebrated the day by putting plants in my perennial bed. Last winter was the worst winter for perennials in living memory. I've spoken to a number of gardeners and it was a very, very bad winter. In the late fall it rained and then the ground froze. Then it thawed. We didn't get snow until very late in the year. The spring was unusual, too. A lot of plants rotted in the ground because of the rain, freeze, thaw, freeze cycle. I lost 75% of the plants in my perennial bed. ARG! The up side is that I was able to redo the spacing since I was replanting almost the entire bed. The bed looks much better now and I was able to avoid planting during the heat wave. YES!

The past couple of years we've seen a lot of extreme weather. Anchorage set a new record for seasonal snow fall the winter of 2011-2012. The following summer the Weather Channel placed Anchorage first on its list of worst summer weather. We had an abundance of cold, cloudy, rainy days. BRRR! Then came winter 2012-2013 which was freakishly brutal for perennials. Now it's June 2013 and we've a heat wave. What next?! Tornados?

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June has ended and here is the final tally:

June 2013: average high temperature was 69.8 degrees from June 1st to 30th

June 2013: 19 days hit 70+ degrees. 11 days were 75+ degrees. 2 days were 80+.

On 12 days in June 2013 new record high temperatures were set for that particular day of the year. In addition on June 18 a new record high temperature (87) for Anchorage was set.

According to an AP press article this was the second warmest June since 1940. (Really?? Some other June set more records than June 2013? I find that hard to believe because when I was looking, I didn't notice any other year popping up regularly as a record setting year.)