Highlights

• Cold Arctic air masses caused colder than normal temperatures across most of Alaska at the beginning of March. Above normal temperatures followed the second half of March due to warmer and more humid air from the Southwest. The last days of March were mostly cold again. On the monthly average, the Western coast was warmer than normal, while the Interior and the Panhandle were colder.
• The Southern coast was drier than normal, while stations to the north received significantly above-average precipitation.
• Utqiaġvik recorded a cumulative snowfall of 22.6 inches, which broke the previous monthly precipitation record set in 1963.
• Cold and humid weather persisted in anchorage. The Anchorage cumulative snowfall was 17 inches, which corresponds to 171.7% of the normal snowfall.
• This was the 7th snowiest march on record in Fairbanks, with 27.5 inches of snowfall.
• There are currently no regions of dryness or drought in Alaska.
• Sea ice extent has decreased by 2.74% between February 27th and March 26th. The turnaround transition date from sea ice increase season to sea ice decrease season was March 16th.