March Weather at Fort Yukon Airport Alaska, United StatesDaily high temperatures increase by 18°F, from 7°F to 25°F, rarely falling below -9°F or exceeding 39°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 16°F, from -14°F to 2°F, rarely falling below -34°F or exceeding 19°F. For reference, on July 2, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Fort Yukon Airport typically range from 54°F to 73°F, while on January 19, the coldest day of the year, they range from -24°F to -9°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on March. 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. Markovo, Russia (3,112 miles away) is the far-away foreign place with temperatures most similar to Fort Yukon Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of March at Fort Yukon Airport experiences gradually increasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy increasing from 59% to 67%. The clearest day of the month is March 1, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 41% of the time. For reference, on December 6, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 69%, while on May 26, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 48%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Fort Yukon Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of March is essentially constant, remaining around 5% throughout. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 23% on August 22, and its lowest chance is 4% on March 18. 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 March at Fort Yukon Airport is gradually decreasing, starting the month at 2.3 inches, when it rarely exceeds 5.5 inches, and ending the month at 1.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.9 inches. SunDue to its extreme latitude, Fort Yukon Airport experiences polar day (also known as the midnight Sun) during the summer. 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. Neither polar day nor polar night occur during the month of March. Over the course of March at Fort Yukon Airport, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the month, the length of the day increases by 3 hours, 40 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 7 minutes, 19 seconds, and weekly increase of 51 minutes, 16 seconds. The shortest day of the month is March 1, with 10 hours, 3 minutes of daylight and the longest day is March 31, with 13 hours, 43 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the month at Fort Yukon Airport is 8:17 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 23 minutes earlier at 6:54 AM on March 31. The earliest sunset is 5:55 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 42 minutes later at 8:37 PM on March 31. Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 3:00 AM on March 10, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier. 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 March 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 Fort Yukon Airport is essentially constant during March, 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 Fort Yukon Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining within 0.1 miles per hour of 7.2 miles per hour throughout. For reference, on March 11, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.3 miles per hour, while on August 31, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 4.9 miles per hour. The highest daily average wind speed during March is 7.3 miles per hour on March 11. The wind direction at Fort Yukon Airport during March is predominantly out of the east from March 1 to March 20 and the north from March 20 to March 31. 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 Fort Yukon Airport typically lasts for 3.4 months (105 days), from around May 19 to around September 2, rarely starting before May 3 or after June 5, and rarely ending before August 15 or after September 20. The month of March at Fort Yukon Airport is reliably fully outside of the growing season. 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 Fort Yukon Airport are essentially constant during March, remaining around 0°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 Fort Yukon Airport is rapidly increasing during March, rising by 1.7 kWh, from 1.2 kWh to 2.9 kWh, over the course of the month. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Fort Yukon Airport are 66.571 deg latitude, -145.250 deg longitude, and 420 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Fort Yukon Airport is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 39 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 429 feet. Within 10 miles is also essentially flat (69 feet). Within 50 miles is essentially flat (1,155 feet). The area within 2 miles of Fort Yukon Airport is covered by trees (66%), sparse vegetation (20%), and water (12%), within 10 miles by trees (75%) and sparse vegetation (12%), and within 50 miles by trees (62%) and shrubs (18%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Fort Yukon 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 PointFort Yukon 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. There are no other weather stations in our network within 200 kilometers of this location. Consequently, in the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on NASA's MERRA-2 modern-era reanalysis , adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal differences between this station and the wide-area MERRA-2 reconstructed values.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. We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader. Please review our full terms contained on our Terms of Service page. |