This blog post is an overview of year-to-date climate data (late November-mid December depending on the data source). Numbers may change as December data becomes available! We will publish our full annual report with final statistics around mid-January, when all data sources have updated through the end of the year.
2025 temperatures
Globally, 2025 will likely come in as the second warmest year on record in a near-tie with 2023 and behind 2024. This would make the past three years (2023, 2024, 2025) the three warmest years in the time series derived from Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis data. In Alaska, annual temperatures were high but not record-breaking. All of the selected First Order stations (Fig. 1) had a warmer than average year (relative to the 1991-2020 climate normal). The North Slope had a particularly warm year. Annual temperature deviations at the stations in western Alaska were less pronounced but noticeably higher than during the past three to four years. In the Southeast, the December cold spell dampened the statistics just before the end of the year and annual deviations are only slightly above normal.
Fig. 2 shows the spatial distribution of monthly temperature anomalies across Alaska in ERA5 data. January stands out as exceptionally warm in all of mainland Alaska. Only the western Aleutians and the southern Panhandle recorded somewhat less extreme anomalies.
February brought more above average temperatures in western Alaska and over the Bering Sea. Mainland Alaska had more moderate positive deviations and the Panhandle and neighbouring British Columbia were cooler than the long term normal. In March, the Bering and Chukchi coasts had colder than average weather, while northern Alaska, the Interior and most of the Gulf of Alaska Coast had a warmer than normal month. April continued the pattern of cool weather in the west. Negative deviations were less pronounced than in March but spread further into western Alaska. In relative terms, May was the coolest month of the year in many regions (i.e., May had the most negative deviations from normal, not the lowest absolute temperatures), with particularly pronounced deviations on the North Slope. The summer months (June, July, August) mostly had moderate temperature deviations on both sides of the normal depending on the region. In September, western Alaska was slightly cooler than normal while the eastern half of the state and neighboring Canada were substantially warmer than normal. This overall pattern of warmth in the east and relatively cooler conditions in the west continued and intensified in October and November, with considerable positive anomalies spreading into much of mainland Alaska and cold anomalies over the western Bering and Chukchi Sea.
December was very cold in many parts of the state, as evidenced for example by the deep, prolonged cold snap apparent in the Fairbanks and Juneau climographs (see our website for this type of graphic for additional locations). Fig. 2 indicates that the North Slope and Southwestern Alaska were least affected by the impressively persistent cold spell.
Precipitation and Snow
Annual precipitation was relatively close to average at most of the First Order stations with values between around 80% and 120% of normal. Stations in southeast Alaska and parts of Southcentral Alaska had a somewhat drier year than normal, while the western and interior parts of the state had a relatively wet year. Utqiaġvik was the wettest station in relative terms with 143% of normal (as of December 19th). NCEI climate division data through November suggest that precipitation in northern Alaska in 2025 was within the top 5 wettest years for the dataset.
The ERA 5 (Fig. 3) reanalysis data show that January was an extremely wet month in much of the state. April, August, and October were also relatively wet, while February and November were unusually dry. December brought exceptional precipitation in Northern Alaska and record-breaking snowfall in Juneau, while the rest of the state largely had a drier than average month.
Fig. 4 and 5 show snow depth during the 2024/25 and 2025 seasons and monthly snowfall totals (2024/25) at the four First Order stations with long term records. The 2024/25 season started with early snow storms in October and subsequently slowed down. Snowfall in October was far above average in Bettles, Fairbanks in Anchorage. Fairbanks then had a slightly below average November followed by a snowier than normal December. Anchorage had an extremely low snow winter. The seasonal snowpack that started building after the late-October storms lasted into January. Warm temperatures and rain then caused all the snow to melt, leaving Anchorage without any snow on the ground until a large snowfall in March. April was also very snowy, making 2024/25 a season of snow extremes in Anchorage.
The 2025/26 snow season has had a solid start. Snow depth in Anchorage and Fairbanks has been near normal in recent weeks, with December snowfalls in Fairbanks pushing the snow pack to above normal levels. Anchorage had a substantial snowfall in November followed by minor accumulation during storms later in the year. Juneau had an exceptionally cold and snowy December. Total snowfall for the month set a new all-time December record for the First Order station at the airport with 82’’. Snow depth reached values around 50’’ in late December (Fig. 4).
Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and ENSO
Large-scale teleconnections like the PDO and ENSO affect Alaska’s weather and climate in complex ways. The PDO is a circulation pattern related to sea surface temperatures in the Pacific north of 20° latitude. Like ENSO (El Niño Southern Oscillation), the PDO index has a “cool”, negative phase and a “warm”, positive phase. In the past, a positive PDO has tended to coincide with above average temperatures in Alaska. For example, the 1976 phase shift of the PDO index from negative to positive has been linked to an increase in regional temperatures in the mid-1970s (Hartmann and Wendler, 2005).
Since early 2020, the PDO index has been negative. In July 2025, the PDO index dropped below 4 for the first time in the NOAA NCEI time series, setting a remarkable new record. The linkage between the PDO and Alaskan temperatures are incompletely understood. However, the ongoing, very negative PDO phase and potential correlations with temperature are difficult to interpret. Fig. 6 shows the monthly PDO index since 1950 up to November 2025 in the upper panel and a 12-month rolling mean of statewide and selected division-wide temperature anomalies. “Division-wide” refers to the NCEI climate divisions for Alaska.
ENSO also affects weather and climate in Alaska and typically oscillates between positive and negative phases at time scales of 2 to around 5 years. ENSO values have been slightly to moderately negative throughout 2025, alternating between ENSO neutral conditions and a weak la Niña. The current weak la Niña is expected to continue through the end of December, with a probable transition to ENSO neutral conditions in early 2026.
Wildfires
The 2025 wildfire season began slow, like many years, with only 1083 Acres burned by June 1st. Similar to the nine years since 2004 with over 1M acres burned, there was a large uptick in fire activity in June, ending with 384K acres burned, and again in July, ending with 981K acres burned. Fire expansion slowed in mid-August with just over 1M acres burned. On December 15th there were no reported current wildland fires with season totals of 467 confirmed wildfires that burned an area of 1,006,183 acres. This year’s burned acreage was slightly above the 969K acre average since 1950, but well below the 1.38M acre average of the last 10 years calculated in the AICC – Predictive Services – Intelligence / Reports.
Of the 467 wildfires this year, 213 were started by humans, 251 were natural, and 3 are still undetermined. The 213 human caused fires burned just under 2K acres, while the greater number of 251 fires started by natural causes burned over 1M of the 1.006M acres this year.
This year the relatively cool and frequently rainy May caused a slow start to the fire season. However, 3 weeks of relatively dry warm weather in the Alaska Interior between the end of May and mid-June dried the duff and other fuels allowing a widespread series of thunderstorms, June 16-22, to spark over 160 new wildfires which spread quickly. The Denali Borough reported the Bear Creek Fire, from this outbreak, to have destroyed 79 structures including 24 homes of which 15 were primary residences. This fire also jumped the Parks Highway between mileposts 259-278 causing many temporary closures of the main connection between Alaska’s two largest municipalities of Fairbanks and Anchorage.
June fires near Fairbanks also led to level 3 “Go” evacuation order for some subdivisions estimated by Alaska Public Media to affect about 200 residents from June 20th to June 22nd. Many other Fairbanks and Parks Highway subdivisions were given level 2 “prepare to evacuate” and level 1 “stay alert” messages due to fire activity between June 20th and July 3rd. However, some rain and cooler temperatures allowed a lull in fire expansion, an ease of some evacuation notices, and some gains in control of the wildfires by the end of June. Of note, smoke from local as well as Canadian fires impacted many Alaskan communities during the solstice week. Air quality in the Interior was particularly poor.
July began warm, smoky, sunny and dry for much of Alaska. Thunderstorms in south-central and Interior Alaska from July 6-8 caused many new fires, and the expansion of existing fires. By mid-July more than 850K acres had burned, however some much needed rains came to the interior helping improve the air quality and slowed the spread of fires. This was the last major jump in fire activity for the 2025 fire year, though some fires would continue burning well into meteorological fall. (Additional information: AICC dashboard)
Noteworthy events
See our blog post on ex-typhoon Halong for a summary of this very destructive fall storm.