December Weather at Arctic Village Airport Alaska, United StatesDaily high temperatures are around -4°F, rarely falling below -24°F or exceeding 13°F. Daily low temperatures are around -17°F, rarely falling below -38°F or exceeding 1°F. For reference, on July 4, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Arctic Village Airport typically range from 50°F to 66°F, while on January 21, the coldest day of the year, they range from -21°F to -8°F. The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average temperatures for the quarter of the year centered on December. 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. Kogalym, Russia (3,215 miles away) and Tosontsengel, Mongolia (3,727 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Arctic Village Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of December at Arctic Village Airport experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 60% throughout the month. The highest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 62% on December 8. The clearest day of the month is December 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 42% of the time. For reference, on September 26, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 66%, while on March 2, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 49%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Arctic Village Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of December is essentially constant, remaining around 8% throughout. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 34% on July 9, and its lowest chance is 4% on March 6. 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 December at Arctic Village Airport is essentially constant, remaining about 2.7 inches throughout, and rarely exceeding 6.1 inches or falling below 0.1 inches. SunDue to its extreme latitude, Arctic Village 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 winter at Arctic Village Airport during 2024, the Sun is continuously below the horizon for 4.1 weeks, setting at 12:53 PM on December 6, and not rising again until 12:42 PM on January 4. As such, polar night begins in December on and lasts beyond the end of the month. The longest day of the month is December 1, with 2 hours, 6 minutes of daylight. The earliest sunrise of the month at Arctic Village Airport is 11:28 AM on December 1 and the latest sunrise is 45 minutes later at 12:13 PM on December 6. The latest sunset is 1:34 PM on December 1 and the earliest sunset is 41 minutes earlier at 12:53 PM on December 6. Daylight saving time is observed at Arctic Village Airport during 2024, but it neither starts nor ends during December, so the entire month is in daylight saving 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 December 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 Arctic Village Airport is essentially constant during December, 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 Arctic Village Airport is essentially constant during December, remaining within 0.2 miles per hour of 7.8 miles per hour throughout. For reference, on January 13, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 8.2 miles per hour, while on August 30, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 6.2 miles per hour. The wind direction at Arctic Village Airport during December is predominantly out of the east from December 1 to December 30 and the north from December 30 to December 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 Arctic Village Airport typically lasts for 2.9 months (87 days), from around May 28 to around August 23, rarely starting before May 11 or after June 14, and rarely ending before August 6 or after September 10. The month of December at Arctic Village 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 Arctic Village Airport are essentially constant during December, remaining around 568°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 Arctic Village Airport is essentially constant during December, remaining around 0.0 kWh throughout. The lowest average daily incident shortwave solar energy during December is 0.0 kWh on December 21. TopographyFor the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Arctic Village Airport are 68.116 deg latitude, -145.573 deg longitude, and 2,051 ft elevation. The topography within 2 miles of Arctic Village Airport contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 226 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 2,063 feet. Within 10 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (3,212 feet). Within 50 miles contains large variations in elevation (6,391 feet). The area within 2 miles of Arctic Village Airport is covered by grassland (65%) and shrubs (21%), within 10 miles by grassland (63%) and shrubs (27%), and within 50 miles by grassland (38%) and shrubs (24%). Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Arctic Village 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 PointArctic Village 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. |