May Weather at Kivalina Airport United StatesDaily high temperatures increase by 13°F, from 30°F to 42°F, rarely falling below 18°F or exceeding 56°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 15°F, from 17°F to 32°F, rarely falling below 1°F or exceeding 39°F. For reference, on July 27, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Kivalina Airport typically range from 46°F to 56°F, while on January 21, the coldest day of the year, they range from -8°F to 5°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on May. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day. Fermont, Canada (3,112 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Kivalina Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of May at Kivalina Airport experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 58% throughout the month. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 57% on May 30. The clearest day of the month is May 30, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 43% of the time. For reference, on January 25, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 68%, while on March 22, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 43%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Kivalina Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of May is gradually increasing, starting the month at 12% and ending it at 15%. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 33% on August 9, and its lowest chance is 5% on March 18. Over the course of May at Kivalina Airport, the chance of a day with only rain increases from 7% to 12%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 2% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow decreases from 4% to 1%. RainfallTo show variation within the month and not just the monthly total, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day rainfall during May at Kivalina Airport is gradually increasing, starting the month at 0.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.8 inches, and ending the month at 0.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 1.3 inches or falls below 0.2 inches. SnowfallAs with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day. The average sliding 31-day snowfall during May at Kivalina Airport is decreasing, starting the month at 2.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 6.1 inches or falls below -0.0 inches, and ending the month at 0.9 inches, when it rarely exceeds 2.5 inches or falls below -0.0 inches. SunDue to its extreme latitude, Kivalina Airport experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer and polar night during the winter. These are periods of time in which the sun is continuously above or below the horizon for more than one day. The precise start and end dates of polar day and night vary from year to year and depend on the precise location and elevation of the observer, and the local topography. In the summer at Kivalina Airport during 2024, the Sun is continuously above the horizon for 1.6 months, rising at 3:00 AM on May 27, and not setting again until 2:55 AM on July 15. As such, polar day begins in May and lasts beyond the end of the month. The shortest day of the month is May 1, with 18 hours, 5 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the month at Kivalina Airport is 5:54 AM on May 1 and the earliest sunrise is 2 hours, 54 minutes earlier at 3:00 AM on May 27. The earliest sunset is 11:59 PM on May 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 50 minutes later at 2:49 AM on May 26. Daylight saving time is observed at Kivalina Airport during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during May, so the entire month is in standard time. The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation. MoonThe figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for May 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.
HumidityWe base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night. The chance that a given day will be muggy at Kivalina Airport is essentially constant during May, remaining around 0% throughout. WindThis section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages. The average hourly wind speed at Kivalina Airport is decreasing during May, decreasing from 10.5 miles per hour to 8.9 miles per hour over the course of the month. For reference, on December 25, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 15.9 miles per hour, while on June 27, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.1 miles per hour. The wind direction at Kivalina Airport during May is predominantly out of the east from May 1 to May 19 and the north from May 19 to May 31. Water TemperatureKivalina Airport is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water. The average surface water temperature at Kivalina Airport is gradually increasing during May, rising by 2°F, from 30°F to 32°F, over the course of the month. Growing SeasonDefinitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere). The growing season at Kivalina Airport typically lasts for 2.7 months (83 days), from around June 14 to around September 5, rarely starting before May 29 or after June 30, and rarely ending before August 17 or after September 24. The month of May at Kivalina Airport is more likely than not fully outside of the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season increasing from 0% to 14% over the course of the month. Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F. The average accumulated growing degree days at Kivalina Airport are essentially constant during May, remaining within 1°F of 1°F throughout. Solar EnergyThis section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation. The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Kivalina Airport is increasing during May, rising by 1.0 kWh, from 4.7 kWh to 5.7 kWh, over the course of the month. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Kivalina Airport are 67.731 deg latitude, -164.547 deg longitude, and 13 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Kivalina Airport is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 16 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 3 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (702 feet). Within 50 miles contains significant variations in elevation (3,222 feet). The area within 2 miles of Kivalina Airport is covered by water (66%), sparse vegetation (16%), and herbaceous vegetation (15%), within 10 miles by water (58%) and sparse vegetation (15%), and within 50 miles by water (48%) and shrubs (34%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Kivalina Airport, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016. Temperature and Dew PointKivalina Airport has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required. In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations. The stations on which we may fall back are Noatak Airport, Cape Lisburne LRRS Airport, Ralph Wien Memorial Airport, Shishmaref Airport, Point Hope Airport, and Robert (Bob) Curtis Memorial Airport. Other DataAll data relating to the Sun's position (e.g., sunrise and sunset) are computed using astronomical formulas from the book, Astronomical Algorithms 2nd Edition , by Jean Meeus. All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid. Land Use data comes from the Global Land Cover SHARE database , published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Elevation data comes from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) , published by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Names, locations, and time zones of places and some airports come from the GeoNames Geographical Database . Time zones for airports and weather stations are provided by AskGeo.com . Maps are © OpenStreetMap contributors. DisclaimerThe information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site. We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands. 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