An investigation of the relationship between surface temperatures and the establishment of snowpack during October in Fairbanks, Alaska

Data suggest that the arrival of winterʹs permanent snowpack impacts daily high and low surface temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska. Given temperatures at 850 hPa ranging from 0 °C to − 5 °C in October, high temperatures on days with snow on the ground are 4.9 °C colder than high temperatures on days with no snow on the ground. The difference for low temperatures is 7.3 °C. While the exact date the snowpack is established varies from year to year, standardizing this date in time as “S-Day” reveals that the drop in daily high and low temperatures through the period from 5 days before S-Day to 5 days after S-Day is from 5 to 7 °C greater than the gradual cooling associated with the change of seasons from fall to winter.