2018 October Monthly Report
Highlights
Arctic sea ice increased particularly in the Chukchi Sea where extent is slightly ahead of last year now, although far below the climatological normal.
The unusual warmth of the past month led to a number of unusually late dates of first frost, first snow, first consistent snow cover, and last time mowing the lawn in communities throughout the state. Around Anchorage, the first significant snowfall of the season caused traffic delays on October 28th and 29th.
The drought in the southeast is easing off. While October started dry in Ketchikan, by the end of the month it had rained enough to restart the community’s hydropower facility, allowing the electric utility to switch off the diesel generators they had been using to compensate for the lack of rain. According to a statement by the utility company, the generators burned a little over half a million gallons of fuel in October alone.