Juneau sets daily and monthly snow records – but not winter record after discovery of error in historic data
- Mark Sabbatini
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
3.6" on Sunday gives Juneau 195.8" since Oct. 1, surpassing 194.3" in 1964-65; but discovery of ’missing’ 7.5" in 2006-07 means actual record is 197.9", according to weather service
By Mark Sabbatini
Juneau Independent
This story has been corrected to note a new record for the month of March has been set, since the initial version of the story reported Juneau was short of that mark.
For people who felt passing the historic winter snowfall of 1964-65 would be no cause for celebration, turns out they were right.
Juneau surpassed the 194.3 inches of snowfall received that winter on Sunday, with the 3.6 inches at Juneau International Airport resulting in 195.8 inches since Oct. 1, according to the National Weather Service Juneau. That one-day total is a record for March 22 — but not the all-time winter record people have been told about for months, because it turns out the winter of 1964-65 isn’t the highest in recorded history.
"NWS Juneau has discovered that the national climate database used by NWS offices across the country was missing seven and a half inches of snowfall for the 2006-2007 winter season for the Juneau International Airport," Nick Morgan, a meteorologist at the station, said Monday morning. "NWS Juneau and its ranking of seasonal records now recognizes the 2006-2007 winter season as the all-time record at 197.9 inches of snowfall at the Juneau airport."
He said NWS officials are now doing "a little bit of extra digging and making sure that all the climate records are right."
Nicole Ferrin, warning coordination meteorologist for NWS Juneau, said at midday Monday that Aaron Jacobs, an employee at the station since 2002, raised concerns about the accuracy of local climate records based on having worked and lived through the winter of 2006-07.
"He's the one that pointed out to the rest of us that this was a problem, and they'd actually attempted to fix the climate record quite a few years ago," she said. "And I guess we didn't have the paper copies back then to back it up, but we found other sources to get the climate record correct."
Ferrin said local staff have been examining records for the past week trying to confirm — and update if necessary — the data, with an eye on making sure any declaration a new snowfall record for Juneau is indeed accurate.
NWS Juneau, in a Facebook post Monday, also noted Juneau has set the all-time snowfall record for March with 63.8 inches, breaking the previous monthly record of 62.7 inches set in 2007.
Morgan said a winter weather advisory for Juneau is in effect for Juneau until 10 a.m. Monday, with the heaviest accumulation out the road. He said one to three inches of snow is expected in town.
The extended forecast calls for clear and cloudy skies most of the week, with a chance of snow returning Friday.
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.
