The same large scale weather pattern responsible for our soggy weather of late also brought all time record heat to parts of the North Slope and northwest Canada. Dead Horse airport at Prudhoe Bay topped out at 89 degrees, that is by far the highest temperature on record there.
Nuiqsut also made it up to 88, but even more extreme was Inuvik Northwest Territories, where the temperature reached 95 degrees.
How can such remarkable heat and our rain be related? Well, deep low pressure aloft anchored over the Bering Sea and strong high pressure over northwest Canada have combined to produce sustained south winds across nearly all of Alaska.
Here, we’re close enough to the lower loft to have plenty of clouds and some rain. Farther east, the same south winds jamming into the mountains have produced copious rain in parts of South Central but as that air descends on the north side of the Chugach then the Alaska range, then the Brooks Range, it’s repeatedly warmed, and the result has been unprecedented heat right to the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
