NOAA'S Climate Prediction Center's outlook for October is out, and for our region, it's unusual in the sense that for most areas, the outlook calls for increased chances for near normal temperatures for the month overall. The exception is across the northern Seward Peninsula and in the Bering Strait, where odds slightly favor significantly above normal temperatures for the month.
For reference, the average temperature in October in Nome is 30 degrees. Over the past 118 years, temperatures have ranged from as high as 59 in 1954 and again in 2016 to as low as 10 below in 1966, although it's been more than 25 years since Nome had a sub zero temperature in October.
Normal precipitation, that is rain plus the water content of snow, lower than in September, but still, on average, the fourth wettest month of the year. Now, Bering Sea storminess typically ramps up in October, and historically, is the most frequent month for coastal floods. In the past, October would occasionally bring more than a foot of snow to Nome, but that hasn't happened since the 1990s.
