Fall Weather at McGrath Airport Alaska, United States

Daily high temperatures decrease by 51°F, from 60°F to 8°F, rarely falling below -10°F or exceeding 67°F.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 49°F, from 43°F to -7°F, rarely falling below -29°F or exceeding 50°F.

For reference, on June 29, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at McGrath Airport typically range from 51°F to 70°F, while on January 19, the coldest day of the year, they range from -13°F to 4°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average fall temperatures. 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.

Nizhnevartovsk, Russia (3,458 miles away); Yeniseysk, Russia (3,321 miles); and Vidim, Russia (3,193 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to McGrath Airport (view comparison).

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The fall at McGrath Airport experiences gradually increasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy increasing from 65% to 70%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 65% on October 25.

The clearest day of the fall is October 25, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 35% of the time.

For reference, on December 13, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 73%, while on May 15, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 40%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At McGrath Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of the fall is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 33% and ending it at 19%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 42% on August 2, and its lowest chance is 12% on March 28.

Over the course of the fall at McGrath Airport, the chance of a day with only rain decreases from 33% to 1%, 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 increases from 0% to 17%.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the fall at McGrath Airport is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 2.6 inches, when it rarely exceeds 4.3 inches or falls below 1.1 inches, and ending the season at 0.2 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.5 inches.

Snowfall

As with rainfall, we consider the snowfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day snowfall during the fall at McGrath Airport is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 0.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.3 inches or falls below -0.0 inches, and ending the season at 10.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 19.2 inches or falls below 2.6 inches.

Over the course of the fall at McGrath Airport, the length of the day is very rapidly decreasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day decreases by 8 hours, 50 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 5 minutes, 53 seconds, and weekly decrease of 41 minutes, 13 seconds.

The shortest day of the fall is November 30, with 5 hours, 33 minutes of daylight and the longest day is September 1, with 14 hours, 23 minutes of daylight.

The earliest sunrise of the fall at McGrath Airport is 7:09 AM on September 1 and the latest sunrise is 3 hours, 15 minutes later at 10:24 AM on November 30.

The latest sunset is 9:33 PM on September 1 and the earliest sunset is 5 hours, 35 minutes earlier at 3:57 PM on November 30.

Daylight saving time (DST) ends at 1:00 AM on November 1, 2026, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour earlier.

For reference, on June 21, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 4:15 AM and sets 20 hours, 17 minutes later, at 12:32 AM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 10:58 AM and sets 4 hours, 44 minutes later, at 3:42 PM.

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.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the fall of 2026. 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.

We 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 McGrath Airport is essentially constant during the fall, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on August 4, 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.

This 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 McGrath Airport is increasing during the fall, increasing from 3.6 miles per hour to 5.2 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on January 15, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 6.2 miles per hour, while on July 8, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 3.3 miles per hour.

The wind direction at McGrath Airport during the fall is predominantly out of the south from September 1 to September 11 and the north from September 11 to November 30.

Definitions 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 McGrath Airport typically lasts for 3.8 months (116 days), from around May 14 to around September 6, rarely starting before April 27 or after May 31, and rarely ending before August 17 or after September 25.

During the fall at McGrath Airport, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly decreasing falling from 64% to -0% over the course of the 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 McGrath Airport are gradually increasing during the fall, increasing by 46°F, from 845°F to 891°F, over the course of the season.

This 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 McGrath Airport is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 2.8 kWh, from 3.0 kWh to 0.2 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of McGrath Airport are 62.953 deg latitude, -155.606 deg longitude, and 331 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of McGrath Airport is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 20 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 330 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (1,440 feet). Within 50 miles contains very significant variations in elevation (3,967 feet).

The area within 2 miles of McGrath Airport is covered by trees (46%), herbaceous vegetation (19%), shrubs (17%), and sparse vegetation (12%), within 10 miles by trees (53%) and shrubs (34%), and within 50 miles by trees (59%) and shrubs (32%).