(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - Wrapping up the meteorological summer season (June-August 31), what is there to say about August other than that it was a soaker.

You may ask, where is all of this rain coming from? The phrase that we became all too familiar with here in Southeast Alaska is: “there is a low in the Gulf."

Throughout the month of August, several low pressure systems moved into the Gulf of Alaska bringing wave after wave of weather fronts across the Panhandle. On August 9th, one of the stronger lows caused several impacts throughout the panhandle. High wind along with flood watches and advisories were issued for portions of the panhandle.

Click on the graphic for a larger graphic. Courtesy National Weather Service

As the summer season was coming near the end the possibility of breaking record rainfall started to look promising for several stations.

Ketchikan set a new record with 47.29 inches, previous record was 46.99 inches set in 2017.

Petersburg also broke their summer rainfall record with 31.60 inches, the previous record was 31.06 inches set in 2015. Juneau fell 1 inch short of their record, finishing the season as the 3rd wettest summer.

August began where July ended with above normal temps near or at 70 degrees. According to the US National Weather Service Juneau Alaska, temperatures quickly dropped back to near normal as the wet weather set up through the remainder of the month.

Sitka even tied the record low temperature on the 13th when the mercury dipped to 46 degrees. With only a handful of rain free days during the month, rainfall amounts were well above normal. Ketchikan finished the month with a whopping 13.04 inches above normal. Yakutat was the station bucking the trends with slightly warmer temperatures and was slightly drier for the month of August.

The forecast for September from the Climate Prediction Center is temperatures showing a slightly above normal chance that we could be warmer than normal. Precipitation has no indications for a trend either way towards wetter, drier or near normal, according to the US National Weather Service Juneau.

Ketchikan June 2020 Summary - The Alaska Climate Research Center

The mean monthly temperature was 54.25°F, which was 0.1°F above normal.

The observed maximum temperature was 70.0°F on the 28th of the month, the minimum temperature was 40.0°F on the 3rd of the month.

The total monthly precipitation was 13.7", which was 7.1" above normal.

Ketchikan July 2020 Summary the Alaska Climate Research Center:

The mean monthly temperature was 57.92°F, which was 0.2°F above normal.

The observed maximum temperature was 81.0°F on the 31st of the month, the minimum temperature was 47.0°F on the 28th of the month.

The total monthly precipitation was 10.8", which was 4.2" above normal.

Ketchikan August 2020 Summary the Alaska Climate Research Center

The mean monthly temperature was 57.31°F, which was 0.7°F below normal.

The observed maximum temperature was 67.0°F on the 1st of the month, the minimum temperature was 49.0°F on the 26th of the month.

The total monthly precipitation was 22.8", which was 13.0" above normal.

Edited By Mary Kauffman, SitNews

Source of News:

US National Weather Service Juneau
www.weather.gov/ajk/

Alaska Climate Research Center
http://akclimate.org

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