The cold of early April 2021 will go down as historic with several Alaskan cities breaking long standing April cold records. Will it remains intact, the Alaska April record low of -50F has been challenged during this cold spell with wind chills of -74F being reported at Howard Pass.

According to Brian Brettschneider, the lowest wind chill of the past decade in Anchorage is -26F, he states that typically the windiest winter days in Anchorage are often the warmest. On April 7, Anchorage reported a wind chill of -25F, surpassing the previous April record of -15 set in 1985.

On April 8, a snow depth of 24 inches was recorded in Anchorage. The deepest for this late in the season.

On April 8, Atigun Pass hit their lowest reading of the entire season with a low of -42F.

https://twitter.com/AlaskaWx/status/1379990913858990088

On April 9, Bettles recorded a low of -38F which surpasses it’s previous April record of -37F set in 1986.

On April 10, Fairbanks hit a low of -29F which marks the coldest April reading here since 1944 when a low of -32F was recorded.

On the same morning Fairbanks recorded -29, there was widespread -40s reported within the traditional interior cold spots.

An unofficial low of -48F was recorded at a USGS river gage on the Maclaren River at Denali Highway Bridge in the upper Susitna Valley.

Later on the day of April 10, after falling to -29F, Fairbanks smashed a record low maximum of 3F (37F below average), surpassing the previous record of 11F. This is also the city’s daytime max in single digits. The city is within a record streak of over 180-days since it last hit 40F, the previous record below 40 is 176 days set back in the fall and winter of 1965-66.

According to climatologist Brain Brettschneider, the current cold spell is Alaska’s most anomalous since May 2013, prior to that September 1995 and before this September 1992.

https://twitter.com/AlaskaWx/status/1381362651213619201

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT: Casey Grove/Alaska Public Media

Tags: alaska april record cold, fairbanks