Bettles had 39.6 inches of snow in October, the most since its records began in 1944

Bettles recorded 39.6 inches of snow in October, easily the most for any October since record-keeping began there in 1944, according to the October 2026 Arctic & Alaska Climate Summary published Saturday in the Alaska and Arctic Climate Newsletter.

Wiseman, 11 miles north of Coldfoot, measured 36.6 inches, the second highest total in a record dating to 1918. The summary notes that record has gaps, with multiple decades of missing climate observations.

The weather service office in Fairbanks issued a Winter Storm Watch on Oct. 22 for the Upper Koyukuk Valley and the south slopes of the central Brooks Range. It named Bettles, Coldfoot and Wiseman, called for 6 to 10 inches of snow with gusts to 35 mph from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon and warned travel could become very difficult.

On the morning of Oct. 25, the Bettles cooperative observer site reported 7 inches of new snow and 13 inches on the ground, with snow still falling. The Wiseman observer reported 6.8 inches.

The Upper Koyukuk Valley stood apart from most of the state. In most other low-elevation areas of Alaska, snowfall was near to below normal, with some exceptions, the summary said. Fairbanks was one exception, with 12.3 inches in October, 5.9 inches above its normal of 6.4, according to National Weather Service climate data.

Alaska had its seventh wettest October since 1950 and its tenth warmest, the summary said. Kotzebue had its second highest October precipitation in about 95 years of records and Nome its third highest in 121 years.

The moisture split along the mountains. The south side of the western and central Brooks Range had very high totals, while the North Slope, across the range, was significantly below normal. Coldfoot and Arctic Village shared the lowest temperature reported in Alaska in October, minus 15 degrees.

Across the Arctic, snow cover grew during the month but ended October at its lowest Oct. 31 extent in the 23-year history of the Integrated Multi-sensor Snow and Ice Mapping System analysis, the newsletter's companion snow-cover report said.

The Koyukuk numbers come from a thin network. Daily snowfall is measured at comparatively few Alaska locations, most near urban centers, along the road system and in Southeast, the summary said, adding that rural Alaska produces hardly any daily snowfall reports. Some automated stations measure snow depth, which is not the same as snowfall.