Minchumina, Alaska climate: Climate normals at a NOAA weather station
Minchumina's normal year runs from −10°F January nights to 69°F July afternoons, with 14.5 inches of precipitation and 54 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of −2.2°C, January lows of −23°C, July highs of 21°C, 368 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationMinchumina
- Station IDUSC00505881
- Location63.90°N 152.28°W
- Elevation1,025 ft (312 m)
On October 23, the normal high in Minchumina is 27°F and the normal low 16°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 30%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Minchumina.
- Jan 3° -10°
- Feb 10° -5°
- Mar 21° 1°
- Apr 41° 20°
- May 57° 37°
- Jun 68° 48°
- Jul 69° 51°
- Aug 63° 46°
- Sep 51° 37°
- Oct 32° 21°
- Nov 13° 1°
- Dec 5° -7°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like at Minchumina each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 69°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of −10°F. The most precipitation falls in August (3.15 in), the least in April (0.31 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3°F | −10°F | -3.6°F | 0.66 | 8.2 | 7 | <1 | 31 | 5 h 20 min |
| February | 10°F | −5°F | 2.5°F | 0.51 | 6.7 | 6 | <1 | 28 | 8 h 30 min |
| March | 21°F | 1°F | 10.9°F | 0.35 | 3.4 | 5 | <1 | 31 | 11 h 40 min |
| April | 41°F | 20°F | 30.4°F | 0.31 | 3.7 | 4 | <1 | 28 | 15 h |
| May | 57°F | 37°F | 47.2°F | 0.64 | 0.7 | 6 | <1 | 9 | 18 h 10 min |
| June | 68°F | 48°F | 57.9°F | 2.21 | 0.0 | 13 | <1 | <1 | 20 h 50 min |
| July | 69°F | 51°F | 59.9°F | 2.64 | 0.0 | 18 | <1 | <1 | 19 h 40 min |
| August | 63°F | 46°F | 54.4°F | 3.15 | 0.0 | 18 | <1 | <1 | 16 h 30 min |
| September | 51°F | 37°F | 44.0°F | 1.63 | 1.5 | 14 | <1 | 6 | 13 h 10 min |
| October | 32°F | 21°F | 26.7°F | 0.95 | 6.9 | 9 | <1 | 27 | 10 h |
| November | 13°F | 1°F | 7.1°F | 0.83 | 13.2 | 10 | <1 | 30 | 6 h 40 min |
| December | 5°F | −7°F | -1.4°F | 0.61 | 9.6 | 8 | <1 | 31 | 4 h 20 min |
| Year (annual) | 36°F | 20°F | 28.0°F | 14.49 | 53.9 | 118 | <1 | 221 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −16°C | −23°C | −19.8°C | 17 mm | 21 cm |
| February | −12°C | −20°C | −16.4°C | 13 mm | 17 cm |
| March | −6°C | −17°C | −11.7°C | 9 mm | 9 cm |
| April | 5°C | −7°C | −0.9°C | 8 mm | 9 cm |
| May | 14°C | 3°C | 8.4°C | 16 mm | 2 cm |
| June | 20°C | 9°C | 14.4°C | 56 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 21°C | 10°C | 15.5°C | 67 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 17°C | 8°C | 12.4°C | 80 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 11°C | 3°C | 6.7°C | 41 mm | 4 cm |
| October | 0°C | −6°C | −2.9°C | 24 mm | 18 cm |
| November | −10°C | −17°C | −13.8°C | 21 mm | 34 cm |
| December | −15°C | −22°C | −18.6°C | 15 mm | 24 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00505881; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
Which months are mildest at Minchumina?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in June and July. Of those, June has the fewest days with rain (13).
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.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00505881.
When is the last frost at Minchumina?
In Minchumina, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 13 in half of years and after May 28 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before September 17 in half of years and before September 3 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- May 131 year in 10 after May 28; 9 in 10 after May 3
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- September 171 year in 10 before September 3; 9 in 10 before September 27
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 124 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 142 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after May 5 in half of springs and before September 26 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Minchumina in zone 2b in ZIP code 99757, the nearest ZIP area.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Alaska · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00505881; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get at Minchumina?
In a normal year in Minchumina, a 90°F day is rare, 221 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 118 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
- 221a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 163high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 118a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 20a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1945) is 89°F, on June 6, 1957; the lowest is −66°F, on January 27, 1989.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1961, with 19.96 in; the snowiest season is 1984–85, with 118.1 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00505881; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00505881. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is it at Minchumina?
Over a year 70% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds at Minchumina, 2.6 kWh per square metre a day. March is the sunniest month (84%) and October the cloudiest (57%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 75% | 0.2 |
| February | 74% | 0.9 |
| March | 84% | 2.7 |
| April | 82% | 4.5 |
| May | 72% | 5.1 |
| June | 67% | 5.3 |
| July | 64% | 4.6 |
| August | 64% | 3.6 |
| September | 64% | 2.3 |
| October | 57% | 1.0 |
| November | 62% | 0.3 |
| December | 73% | 0.1 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How many heating and cooling degree days does Minchumina record?
A normal year at Minchumina brings 13,481 heating degree days, 2.5 times the median U.S. place (5,373), and 32 cooling degree days, 96% fewer than the median (908). Ten months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 774 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 2,126 | 0 |
| February | 1,749 | 0 |
| March | 1,675 | 0 |
| April | 1,038 | 0 |
| May | 552 | 0 |
| June | 227 | 13 |
| July | 176 | 18 |
| August | 328 | 1 |
| September | 630 | 0 |
| October | 1,187 | 0 |
| November | 1,735 | 0 |
| December | 2,058 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 13,481 | 32 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00505881. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Have recent years at Minchumina been warmer than normal?
2024 averaged 28.6°F, 0.6°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 28.0°F. 2 of the 4 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 26.8°F | −1.2°F | 14.16 | – |
| 2022 | 29.2°F | +1.2°F | – | – |
| 2023 | 27.6°F | −0.4°F | 11.27 | – |
| 2024 | 28.6°F | +0.6°F | 17.19 | 57.4 |
Over 38 complete years from 1945 to 2024, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 4.6°F per century (+0.25°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00505881; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Minchumina's climate compare?
Minchumina is warmer than 25 of the 85 places with their own NOAA record in Alaska, and wetter than 21. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 28.0°F is warmer than 1%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Minchumina is Dsc: continental, dry-summer, cool summer. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Minchumina share this climate record?
Lake Minchumina 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.
- Lake Minchumina, AK14 people · 10 mi SW
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Minchumina's climate
What is the coldest month at Minchumina?
January, with a normal high of 3°F and a normal low of −10°F. The warmest is July (69°F by day, 51°F at night).
Does it snow at Minchumina?
Yes: 54 inches in a normal year, falling on 47 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in November (13.2 inches).
What is the rainiest month at Minchumina?
August, with 3.15 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is April with 0.31 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Minchumina in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Minchumina in zone 2b in ZIP code 99757, the nearest ZIP area.
How late can frost come at Minchumina?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after May 13; in one year in ten it comes after May 28. Waiting until May 28 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Alaska climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Denali (27 mi N), AK53 miles from this station, 28.8°F a year
- Ruby (44 mi ESE), AK69 miles from this station, 26.3°F a year
- Tanana, AK88 miles from this station, 25.5°F a year
- Kobe Hill, AK88 miles from this station, 28.2°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made