March Weather at Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport Alaska, United StatesDaily high temperatures increase by 8°F, from -8°F to 0°F, rarely falling below -25°F or exceeding 16°F. Daily low temperatures increase by 8°F, from -21°F to -14°F, rarely falling below -38°F or exceeding 2°F. For reference, on July 13, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport typically range from 40°F to 55°F, while on February 9, the coldest day of the year, they range from -22°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. Tosontsengel, Mongolia (3,552 miles away) and McMurdo Station, Antarctica (10,402 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport (view comparison). CloudsThe month of March at Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 89% throughout the month. The clearest day of the month is March 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 12% of the time. For reference, on January 21, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 91%, while on June 26, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 36%. PrecipitationA wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of March is essentially constant, remaining around 2% throughout. For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 22% on August 11, and its lowest chance is 2% on April 1. 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is gradually decreasing, starting the month at 1.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.9 inches, and ending the month at 0.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 2.5 inches. The lowest average 31-day accumulation is 0.7 inches on March 29. SunDue to its extreme latitude, Ugnu-Kuparuk 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. Neither polar day nor polar night occur during the month of March. Over the course of March at Ugnu-Kuparuk 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 4 hours, 28 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 8 minutes, 55 seconds, and weekly increase of 1 hour, 2 minutes, 27 seconds. The shortest day of the month is March 1, with 9 hours, 37 minutes of daylight and the longest day is March 31, with 14 hours, 5 minutes of daylight. The latest sunrise of the month at Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is 8:40 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 39 minutes earlier at 7:01 AM on March 31. The earliest sunset is 6:00 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 3 hours, 6 minutes later at 9:06 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining around 0% throughout. For reference, on July 24, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time. 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is gradually decreasing during March, decreasing from 12.4 miles per hour to 11.8 miles per hour over the course of the month. For reference, on January 12, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 13.0 miles per hour, while on July 11, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 9.7 miles per hour. The hourly average wind direction at Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport throughout March is predominantly from the east, with a peak proportion of 54% on March 31. Water TemperatureUgnu-Kuparuk 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is essentially constant during March, remaining around 29°F throughout. 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport typically lasts for 1.6 months (48 days), from around June 27 to around August 14, rarely starting before June 7, or ending after September 5. The month of March at Ugnu-Kuparuk 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk 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 Ugnu-Kuparuk Airport is rapidly increasing during March, rising by 1.6 kWh, from 0.7 kWh to 2.3 kWh, over the course of the month. Data SourcesThis report illustrates the typical weather at Ugnu-Kuparuk 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 PointUgnu-Kuparuk 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 Deadhorse Airport and Nuiqsut 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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