Friday was the Spring Equinox, but the start of the season was nowhere in sight in Unalaska.
As snow fell across the island, the morning’s low temperature clocked in at 11 degrees, making Friday the coldest March 20 on record for the island, according to lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service Anchorage office, Virginia Rux.
“It's the coldest March day since 1994,” Rux said.
Rux said every day except for one this month has been below normal, or the average temperature.
There’s been persistent high pressure over the Bering Sea and low pressure over the Gulf of Alaska, which has brought a northerly flow of colder Arctic air over the Northern and Eastern Bering Sea, as well as into other parts of Alaska, she said.
That’s allowed sea ice to grow further south than it usually does, bringing cold temperatures with it.
“Sometimes that ice sheet can act as another land mass, and so there's a frictionless surface for all that cold air to really blow through,” Rux said.
Michael Lawson with the Weather Service’s Alaska Sea Ice Program said the Eastern Bering Sea — between the Pribilof Islands and the Alaska Peninsula — is seeing record-breaking levels of sea ice this winter.
“We've had more than we've had in at least 15 years, but maybe even 30,” Lawson said.
He said persistent weather patterns have been pushing the ice south, sending pack ice through False Pass.
NWS has only recorded ice in the Eastern Aleutians village on Unimak Island about seven times over the last few decades, according to Lawson.
While spring has technically sprung, winter conditions are sticking around the region for a while longer.
Temperatures warmed up over the weekend, but the forecast calls for highs in the low-30s over the week and a chance of snow showers through Tuesday.
