By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
While rainfall records were set in some parts of Southeast this summer, Sitka posted a wet – but not the wettest – June, July and August going back to 1944, the National Weather Service says.
“The story of the summer in Southeast is that it was wet and cool,” said Jake Ruckman, NWS meteorologist.
Some 19.7 inches fell here between June 1 and August 31 this year, which is well above the historic average of 13.88. The three months are what meteorologists refer to statistically as the “meteorological summer.”
“While it’s not as impressive as setting a record – like Ketchikan did – it does rank 10th on record for wettest summer,” Ruckman said.
Sitka’s rainfall in August was 8.71 inches, well above the historic average of 6.87. (Sitka’s records go back to 1944.) The highest rainfall here for summer months occurred in 1961, when 34.6 inches fell.
A bailing can floats in a partially submerged skiff at Crescent Harbor today. While the nearly 20 inches of rain that fell in Sitka between June 1 and August 31 was above normal, it was not a record. In 1961 nearly three feet of rain fell in the summer months. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Ketchikan did set a record for rainfall, with the summer’s 47.28 inches of rain narrowly beating the record set in 2017 of 46.99. Ketchikan’s records go back to 1910, Ruckman said.
With the high rainfall throughout Southeast, some areas saw little variation between daytime high temperatures and nighttime lows.
“It may be intuitive – with no rain, the sun doesn’t get a chance to warm things up,” Ruckman said.
In Sitka, the August average temperature was 56.6 degrees, just below the normal for the month, of 57.2.
“Most days there was very little difference between daytime highs and nighttime lows,” Ruckman said.
While some have lamented the high rainfall this summer, Fish and Game area management biologist Aaron Dupuis says it was good news for the fish.
Dupuis manages the seine and gillnet fisheries, which target pink and chum salmon.
“We needed water, especially in relation to the last couple of years, when we were experiencing drought conditions,” he said. “Because of the drought conditions we were experiencing low water levels (in the streams). That’s really hard on salmon – they need water, cold water, to spawn. When the water levels are low, it also tends to be warmer, and that’s incredibly stressful on spawning salmon.”
In surveys monitoring more than 80 different streams from Lisianski Inlet to Little Port Walter throughout the summer, Dupuis and other biologists have seen better conditions overall this year due to rainfall.
“It’s much improved from the last two years,” Dupuis said.
In the immediate future the National Weather Service is forecasting isolated rain showers tonight, sunny skies Saturday and Sunday and a chance of rain on Labor Day.
