Anchorage, Alaska climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records

What is the weather like in Anchorage each month?

July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 66°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 11°F. The most precipitation falls in September (3.10 in), the least in April (0.43 in).

Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:

• Jan
• Feb
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Jul
• Aug
• Sep
• Oct
• Nov
• Dec

When is the best weather to visit Anchorage?

Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in July.

That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.

When is the last frost in Anchorage?

In Anchorage, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 5 in half of years and after May 15 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 1 in half of years and before September 18 in one year in ten.

Last spring frost, half of years after

May 51 year in 10 after May 15; 9 in 10 after April 24

First autumn frost, half of years before

October 11 year in 10 before September 18; 9 in 10 before October 14

NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 147 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 171 days.

A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 22 in half of springs and before October 10 in half of autumns.

The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Anchorage in zones 3a to 5b across its 16 ZIP code areas (5a in 99567, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Anchorage's NOAA station is in zone 5b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −13°F (30 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.

Frost dates for every NOAA station in Alaska · Frost dates by ZIP code

What hardiness zone is each Anchorage ZIP code in?

The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Anchorage's 16 ZIP code areas run from zone 3a to 5b: 1 in 3a, 10 in 5a and 5 in 5b. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.

How hot and how cold does it get in Anchorage?

In a normal year in Anchorage, a 90°F day is rare, 186 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 115 days bring measurable precipitation.

Days at 90°F or more

fewer than 1a normal year

Days at 100°F or more

fewer than 1a normal year

Nights at 32°F or colder

186a normal year

Days that stay below freezing

104high of 32°F or less

Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation

115a normal year

Days with 1 inch of snow or more

22a normal year

The highest temperature in Anchorage's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1953) is 90°F, on July 4, 2019; the lowest is −34°F, on January 5, 1975.

The wettest calendar year on that record is 2022, with 28.60 in; the snowiest season is 2011–12, with 134.5 inches.

How humid and windy is Anchorage, and how clear are its skies?

The summer (June-August) dew point averages 48°F. The muggiest month is July, with an average dew point of 51°F; the driest air comes in January (12°F). May is the windiest month (8.5 mph on average), and February has the most clear or nearly clear hours (30%).

How sunny is Anchorage?

Over a year 66% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Anchorage, 2.5 kWh per square metre a day. March is the sunniest month (74%) and December the cloudiest (56%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks 459th in sunshine.

How much heating and cooling does Anchorage need?

A normal year in Anchorage brings 9,979 heating degree days, 86% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 8 cooling degree days, 99% fewer than the median (908). Nine months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 798 growing degree days a year above 50°F.

Has Anchorage been warmer than normal lately?

2025 averaged 39.1°F, 1.5°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 37.6°F. 3 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.

Over 103 complete years from 1917 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 5.1°F per century (+0.29°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.

Which places near Anchorage share this climate record?

Beluga has no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of its own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.

• Beluga, AK5 people · 39 mi W

What do Anchorage's other NOAA stations record?

5 more NOAA stations keep 1991-2020 normals in or near Anchorage. This page uses Anchorage Ted Stevens International Airport; the others differ by site and elevation, and the linked ones have pages of their own:

Nearby and next

• Anchorage in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
• Alaska climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
• Anchorage Lake Hood Airport, AK2 miles from this station, 38.0°F a year
• Campbell Creek Science Center, AK8 miles from this station, 34.1°F a year
• Anchorage Rabbit Creek #2, AK11 miles from this station, 36.5°F a year
• Glen Alps, AK12 miles from this station, 34.5°F a year
• Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side

Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made