2015 Year In Summary

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2015 was another dramatic year for Alaska weather and climate. Many of the highlights revolve around the continued warmth over much of the state.

Juneau Airport recorded the warmest year in more than 70 years of record keeping. Many other communities saw the second warmest year in 2015, including Anchorage, Homer, Ketchikan, Kodiak and Kotzebue.

Alaska's 2015 wildfire season saw more than 5.1 million acres burn, the second highest total of record, after having been primed by an early snowmelt and the warmest May of record in the Interior. During mid-June the Sockeye Fire near Willow and the Card Street Fire near Sterling both caused extensive property damage with homes lost.

The Dalton Highway south of Prudhoe Bay experienced severe flooding during the spring, closing the road for days at a time. Individual weather events also brought problems for Alaskans. Freezing rain occurred in parts of the state during January and February, including closing Bethel Schools for two days. Ten inches of rain produced flooding in Ketchikan in January, while Sitka received more than two inches of rain on August 18^th. Coming on top of what had already been a wet summer, this heavy rain caused a large mudslide that killed three people and destroyed at least one home.  The Fairbanks area saw heavy wet snow the last days of the month that brought widespread, long-lasting power outages.

One of the deepest storms of record buffeted the central Aleutians December 12^th and 13^th, when winds gusted 122 mph at Adak. Finally, New Years's Eve saw Anchorage without measurable snow cover, the first time that has happened since 1995.

Get your local forecast information at weather.gov/Alaska