The heat wave that has already brought record-breaking temperatures to Alaska is expected to continue until the start of fall.
The Alaska Dispatch News reports that the three-month forecast from the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center anticipates warmer-than-normal weather from July through the end of September.
The strongest changes for warm weather are in Southeast Alaska and along the Southcentral Alaska coastline.
NWS’s Alaska climate science and services manager Rick Thoman says several factors are combining to keep the state warm.
Those include the current positive phase of an oceanic cycle that is associated with warm sea surface temperatures in the North Pacific, unrelated warm temperatures in the Bering Sea and the diminished state of Arctic sea ice.
