Climate monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Annual report for the 2011 hydrologic year

Lindsay, Chuck

The Southwest Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring program monitors climate across a region that includes five national park units: Alagnak Wild River, Aniakchack National Monument and Preserve, Katmai National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, and Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. To date, monitoring efforts have focused on the placement and installation of new weather stations and the development, testing, and implementation of a protocol for monitoring climate. In addition to operating and maintaining 10 weather stations in three network parks, weather observations are obtained from an additional 29 stations across the region of interest. This report, the third in an annual series, summarizes weather observations from the recent hydrologic year and provides a regional and historical climatic context. The Southwest Alaska Network region was colder than average and received less than average to near average precipitation during the 2011 hydrologic year (October 2010 through September 2011). Compared to the climatological normal (the prevailing set of weather conditions calculated over a 30-year period, currently 1981-2010), mean annual temperatures for six long-term weather stations were 0.2 to 2.3 °F below average. Total annual precipitation was 75% to 103% of average. In general, locations on the southern and eastern Kenai Peninsula received less than normal precipitation whereas locations on the Alaska Peninsula and across the northern Aleutian and southern Alaska Ranges received near average precipitation. Several winter months (December, February, and March) and summer months (June, July, and August) were colder than average across the region. When compared to the period of record, temperature and precipitation during the 2011 hydrologic year are consistent with conditions observed during the 2006-2009 hydrologic years, which were also generally colder and drier. Negative (cool phase) Pacific Decadal Oscillation conditions and a La Niña (cool phase) event of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation occurred during the 2011 hydrologic year. All ten weather stations that are operated by the Southwest Alaska Network were maintained during the 2011 hydrologic year. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, with funding from Kenai Fjords National Park, installed a new weather and snowpack monitoring station near Exit Glacier. A new weather station was installed in Aialik Bay as a result of collaboration between Kenai Fjords National Park, Port Graham Native Corporation, and the Southwest Alaska Network Inventory and Monitoring program. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Katmai National Park and Preserve completed a site license agreement for the planned installation of a Climate Reference Network Station at Contact Creek in 2012.

Climate monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Annual report for the 2011 hydrologic year

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