Published: August 10,2016
Alaska has had the warmest start to any year dating to the 1920s, according to a government report released Monday.
The state's January-July 2016 mean temperature of 33.9 degrees Fahrenheit was 8.1 degrees above the long-term (1925-2000) average and smashed the previous record in 1981, according to data from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information.
(MORE: First Six Months of 2016 Were Globe's Record Warmest)
Perhaps even more notable, this was the first time in 91 years of records the January-July mean temperature in our 49th state was above freezing.
"The warm sea-surface temperatures have been a large factor in the air temperatures," said Alaska-based climatologist Dr. Brian Brettschneider. "In the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, sea-surface temperatures are at 100-year highs."
(MORE: Record Low September Arctic Sea Ice Unlikely)
January-July
2016 departures from average surface temperatures, in degrees Celsius.
Average period used is 1981-2010. Alaska is highlighted by the red box.All but one month so far in 2016 has been among the top five warmest on record for that respective month in Alaska.
February and April set records in the state and spring 2016 (March through May) was the record warmest spring.
| January | Fourth warmest |
| February | Record warmest |
| March | Fifth warmest |
| April | Record warmest |
| May | Second warmest |
| June | Ninth warmest |
| July | Fourth warmest |
Alaska 25-City temperature index now above normal 223 of last 224 days through August 5th (12/26/15-8/5/16). #akwx
July was the single warmest month on record in Anchorage, topping July 1977. July was also the muggiest month (highest monthly dewpoint) on record in Fairbanks, as well as several other locations across the state, according to Brettschneider.
In fact, it's increasingly likely Alaska will top its record warm year, even if the rest of the year is cooler.
"If August-December is anywhere above the bottom 1/4 percentile (i.e. warmer than the coolest 25 percent of August-December periods), 2016 will be Alaska's warmest year on record," said Brettschneider in a tweet Monday.
Two of the three warmest years on record in Alaska have occurred the past two years, headed by 2014 (warmest) and 2015 (third warmest).
January-July 2016 was the third-warmest such period on record for the Lower 48 states dating to 1895, according to NOAA/NCEI.
Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7.
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