Climate monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Annual report for the 2012 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, Aniakchak 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 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 average to above average precipitation during the 2012 hydrologic year (October 2011 through September 2012). 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 2.7 to 4.0 °F below average. Total annual precipitation was 108 to 142 % of average. In general, locations in the southern part of the region received above average precipitation whereas locations in the northern part of the region received closer to average precipitation. Several fall and winter months (November, January, and March) and also summer months (May through September) were colder than average across the region. Several historical precipitation records were broken in February and September and record setting snowfall was observed in some locations. When compared to the period of record, temperature and precipitation during the 2012 hydrologic year are generally consistent with colder than average conditions observed during the 2006-2009 and 2011 hydrologic years, but represent a departure from the drier than average conditions generally observed during recent years. Negative (cool phase) Pacific Decadal Oscillation conditions and a La Niña (cool phase) event of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation occurred during the 2012 hydrologic year. All ten weather stations that are operated by the Southwest Alaska Network were maintained during the 2012 hydrologic year. Staff from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Southwest Alaska Network completed installation of a new U.S. Climate Reference Network station at Contact Creek in Katmai National Park and Preserve – 42 miles southeast of King Salmon. This station joins a network of over 114 stations developed, deployed, managed, and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the express purpose of detecting the national signal of climate change. The vision of this program is to maintain a sustainable high-quality climate observation network that 50 years from now can with the highest degree of confidence answer the question: How has the climate of the nation changed over the past 50 years?

Climate monitoring in the Southwest Alaska Network: Annual report for the 2012 hydrologic year

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