Fall Weather in Kotzebue United States

Daily high temperatures decrease by 43°F, from 53°F to 9°F, rarely falling below -8°F or exceeding 60°F.

Daily low temperatures decrease by 44°F, from 44°F to -0°F, rarely falling below -17°F or exceeding 51°F.

For reference, on July 14, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Kotzebue typically range from 51°F to 60°F, while on January 20, the coldest day of the year, they range from -8°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.

Nizhniy Odes, Russia (3,230 miles away) and Langepas, Russia (3,119 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Kotzebue (view comparison).

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The fall in Kotzebue experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 58% throughout the season. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 55% on October 6.

The clearest day of the fall is October 6, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 45% of the time.

For reference, on January 10, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 67%, while on May 28, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 45%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Kotzebue, the chance of a wet day over the course of the fall is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 27% and ending it at 12%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 32% on August 10, and its lowest chance is 6% on March 18.

Over the course of the fall in Kotzebue, the chance of a day with only rain decreases from 27% to 1%, the chance of a day with mixed snow and rain remains an essentially constant 1% throughout, and the chance of a day with only snow increases from 0% to 10%.

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 in Kotzebue is rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 2.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.5 inches or falls below 0.7 inches, and ending the season at 0.1 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.3 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 in Kotzebue is very rapidly increasing, starting the season at 0.0 inches, when it rarely exceeds 0.1 inches or falls below -0.0 inches, and ending the season at 6.5 inches, when it rarely exceeds 13.0 inches or falls below 0.8 inches.

Due to its extreme latitude, Kotzebue 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 fall.

Over the course of the fall in Kotzebue, 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 11 hours, 21 minutes, implying an average daily decrease of 7 minutes, 34 seconds, and weekly decrease of 52 minutes, 58 seconds.

The shortest day of the fall is November 30, with 3 hours, 27 minutes of daylight and the longest day is September 1, with 14 hours, 48 minutes of daylight.

The earliest sunrise of the fall in Kotzebue is 7:24 AM on September 1 and the latest sunrise is 4 hours, 31 minutes later at 11:55 AM on November 30.

The latest sunset is 10:13 PM on September 1 and the earliest sunset is 6 hours, 50 minutes earlier at 3:22 PM on November 30.

Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 1:00 AM on November 3, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later.

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 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.

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 in Kotzebue is essentially constant during the fall, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on June 23, 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 in Kotzebue is rapidly increasing during the fall, increasing from 10.2 miles per hour to 14.2 miles per hour over the course of the season.

For reference, on December 29, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 14.8 miles per hour, while on June 18, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.3 miles per hour.

The hourly average wind direction in Kotzebue throughout the fall is predominantly from the east, with a peak proportion of 67% on November 25.

Kotzebue 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 in Kotzebue is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 19°F, from 49°F to 29°F, over the course of the season.

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 in Kotzebue typically lasts for 3.6 months (109 days), from around June 4 to around September 21, rarely starting before May 17 or after June 21, and rarely ending before September 1 or after October 9.

During the fall in Kotzebue, the chance that a given day is within the growing season is very rapidly decreasing falling from 90% 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 in Kotzebue are essentially constant during the fall, remaining within 8°F of 355°F throughout.

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 in Kotzebue is very rapidly decreasing during the fall, falling by 2.9 kWh, from 2.9 kWh to 0.0 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Kotzebue are 66.898 deg latitude, -162.598 deg longitude, and 20 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Kotzebue contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 121 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 13 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (305 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (3,130 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Kotzebue is covered by water (73%), sparse vegetation (13%), and shrubs (11%), within 10 miles by water (67%) and shrubs (17%), and within 50 miles by water (53%) and shrubs (23%).