Nome breaks record for highest temperature set in December
Nome’s business as usual came to a standstill last week as days of unusual warmth and rain had people reaching for their ice cleats as sidewalks and roads turned into slick ice.
Keeping a car from sliding off the ice-glazed roads was a major feat. Around this time of the year it is not unusual that everything comes to a standstill due to blizzards. But last week, it was record-breaking high temperatures that made traveling to school or the office impossible. Rain fell on snow, turning every surface into a slippery slope. The wind then polished the ice to perfection, turning roads, parking lots and driveways into ice rinks.
Instead of sporting a white cover of snow, the tundra’s deep brown is exposed, and rivers, creeks and ponds show puddles of water on their icy surface.
Nome broke two records for a couple of days: The 44°F high was the warmest temperature seen in Nome in December in the 119 years it’s been recorded. The previous highest temperature measured in December was 43°F on December 20, 1969. It was also the first time temperatures had stayed above freezing for three straight days in a winter month since 1963, according to Rick Thoman, Alaska Climate Specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
The low temperature both Monday and Tuesday measured 33ºF. This is only the second time in Nome’s 119 year climate history that the temperature has stayed continuously above freezing on back-to-back days in December. The only other time was December 5-6, 2002.
“In Nome, it’s really hard to get temperatures above 40 in this time of year,” said Rick Thoman. “There’s no appreciable solar heating.”
He explained that a high-pressure system swept from British Columbia across Southeast Alaska to the Interior. Western Alaska was to the west of all that pressure. Low pressure weather got trapped over the Aleutians. The weather here was very mild because the pressure was so low, and Nome never got a cold front to come through and sweep in cold air.
Over the stretch of wet days, the Nome Police Department reported responding to only one car sliding off the road, on the way to the airport. But Facebook posts showed a multitude of cars and trucks in ditches.
Norton Sound Health Corporation’s Injury Prevention program sells ice cleats at a reduced cost through their Injury Prevention store in the CAMP department offices. They also have a grant that provides elders with free cleats, this is available to those in Nome and villages throughout the region by reaching out to the CAMP department. Currently cleats are out of stock as they’ve been “flying off the shelves” the past few weeks according to CAMP Manager Tracy Gregg, but they should be available soon.
Nome Public Schools shut down for two days due to the icy conditions. Bering Strait School District schools never did, according to Tammy Dodd, Superintendent, but one regional school did start late. Dodd did not respond to follow up questions about which one.
Other businesses and organizations in Nome stayed closed or closed early, on Dec. 9 and 10.
Weather-induced school absences
Unpredictable changes in weather patterns have an effect on school attendance, a problem western Alaska faces increasingly. The remedy is so-called Blizzard Bags — packets that allow students to study from home when weather events —or during COVID-times — school closures keep kids out of the school.
This solution is now questioned by the state.
Alaska’s Education Commissioner Deena Bishop in a letter to superintendents across the state addressed the chronic absenteeism. “During the 2022–2023 school year, 45 percent of students in Alaska were identified as chronically absent—missing more than 10 percent of the academic year,” she wrote. It is more than double the national average, Bishop said.
In the closing of her letter, Bishop stated that virtual school days do not replace in-person instruction for brick-and-mortar students unless prior approval is granted.
Superintendent of Nome Public Schools Jamie Burgess said in the most recent school board meeting: “Just telling us mid-year that, ‘No, sorry, you can’t do remote learning’ throws a little bit of a monkey wrench in our plans.”
Burgess told the school board that she is working with other superintendents around the state who have expressed concern with the halt in use of remote learning to work out a way districts can use it in a limited fashion.
“Especially with climate change we’re experiencing, this kind of weird weather, it’s really difficult to say. We’ve had many days like this where it’s just sometimes not safe to put busses on the road,” Burgess said.
As for the future, this weather system will have some lasting effects. Thoman says the warm weather and the rain did significant damage to the snow pack, and that temperatures may stay above normal and for the foreseeable future, not very much snow.
“With warming oceans, warming air, we put the thumb on the scale for this kind of thing to happen again,” said Rick Thoman. He explained that a lot of ingredients had to come together to create this weather system. “While its more likely to happen now than it was 50 years ago, it’s still not very likely.”
With reporting by Anna Lionas