December was mild across nearly all of Alaska, and our region was no exception.
The average temperature at the Nome Airport in December of 20 degrees was a full 10 degrees above normal and tied for the sixth mildest December on record.
The monthly high temperature of 44 on the 10th is the highest in Nome's long climate history during December. For the first time, Nome had three straight December days when it remained above freezing. On top of that, below normal precipitation during the month, most of which fell as rain, and we ended 2024 with the lowest snowpack for this point in the season in at least a couple of decades.
The reason for the warmth and low precipitation was the same, a very persistent storm track from the southern Gulf of Alaska northwestward across Kodiak Island and then into the southern Bering Sea, kept pushing milder air across western Alaska, even as the associated precipitation remained mostly to our south and east.
