Unseasonal Warm Winter

Joseph Pleasant writes,

Warmer weather than usual this year, we had some snow, but it melted making the ground soft again, and the Kanektok River is still open. Joseph Pleasant

LEO says:

The almanac at WeatherUnderground indicates that Quinhagak experienced sun, snow and rain during the first week of December with temperatures ranging from a high of 10 degrees F Sunday to a high of 51 degrees F by Friday. The mean temperature on December 7th was 42 degrees, just two degrees short of the record high set in 2009. The record low was -31 set in 1975. M. Brubaker, M. Tcheripanoff

Media:

Alaska Dispatch News (2013-12-10) Seth Kantner: With warm December winds, shaken faith in Arctic weather, "It's raining again. Was that a pop song from the '80s? I don't know -- I just wish it would stop. This is December, after all, and in a place that used to be cold and our people called it the Arctic. Outside, in darkness, wind buffets the house -- the way it should -- but rain and ice pellets rattle against the windows, too. Out there my snow machine is gassed and ready. Packed on the freight sled are axes and a shovel, tiktaaliq (mudshark) hooks and an ice chisel. Andrew Greene and I had planned to head up the Noatak to set hooks under the ice today. We're not going anywhere in this rain. We haven't exactly cancelled -- I think we're too depressed about the warm weather to even bother." By SETH KANTNER (Special to the Daily News)