Valdez, AK December Climate Extremes

A quick glance at Decembers back to 1964 indicates Valdez can get a heck of a lot of snow. Seven Decembers have dumped over 100″ on our mountain town. It can be downright brutal at times as the coldest temps of the year, heavy snows, hurricane force winds, and even drenching rains are in the range of the possibilities. Cold temps are in the Valdez forecast and actually anything below 0F is rare, at least in Valdez were the weather station was located.

There is one category that was alarming. Each shows a scattering of data spread over 60 years.  Maximum Average Daily High for the month is defined as the high temperature recorded each day and averaged for the month. The last 15 years have produced an interesting trend quite different from the other statistics I scanned. Of note were the years of 2000-2007. 2014 was the warmest December on record by nearly 4 degrees. Records for this category typically are broken by a 1/10″. Data was not entered for 2015 or 2016 due the closing of the NWS office,so data in the future will come from other sources and I will update the below statistic if they become available. (all measurements rounded to the nearest inch)

December – Valdez – 1964-2014

Warmest December Average Maximum Daily Temp(F)

2014  –  37

2011  – 33

2006  – 33

2000 – 33

2005 – 32

2004 –32

2003 – 32

2007 -31

Snowiest Decembers with over 100”

1991 -137

1989-125

1988-110

1994- 125

1955-109

1979-105

1976-102

Least Snowiest Decembers

1995 –  9

2014 – 15

1996 – 17

1983 – 30

2005 –  37

Coldest Temps in December (F)

1964    -9

1990    -5

1971    -7

1980    -6

1966   – 2

Snowiest December Day

39″ –  2009

Most Precipitation in December

1989 – 17”/124” of snow

1999  – 17”/93”

Least Precipitation in December

1996 – 1.4/17”

2007 –  3”/38”