Juneau’s temperatures climbed to 75 degrees on Tuesday, and the summery weather is expected to stick around at least until Friday, according to the National Weather Service.
The Mendenhall Valley is forecasted to be slightly warmer than the downtown area, according to NWS meteorologist Wes Adkins, but both regions are expected to reach at least 80 degrees by Friday before cooling off slightly over the weekend.
“We are going for near-record temperatures,” Adkins said by phone Wednesday morning. “It looks to remain pretty warm through the end of the work week and possibly into parts of the weekend, although our confidence is lower for the weekend.”
Sun 😎 & heat🌶️ is the story of the week for SE #Alaska. #Sitka & the coast look to rise near 70 while points inland including #Juneau & #Ketchikan will be near 80.
.@KTOOpubmedia .@800KINY .@JuneauEmpire .@ravenradio .@KDNNews .@KRBDRadio .@KFSK1 .@KHNS_FM .@KSTKradio #akwx pic.twitter.com/VistBup5BT— NWS Juneau (@NWSJuneau) June 26, 2019
The Juneau International Airport, the city’s official measuring point, is expected to warm to 80 degrees on Thursday and 82 degrees on Friday. The latter mark would set a new record for the hottest-ever June 28th in the capital city. The current record-high temperature is 78 degrees, set in 1983.
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Despite the ongoing warm spell, this month’s average temperature (54.9 degrees) is nothing too extreme: it’s 24th warmest on record and three degrees cooler than the June average on this date 15 years ago. The summer of 2004 is the hottest on record.
“A lot of your readers will remember we’ve had some pretty wet days where the temperature has been pretty chill and some people can run their heat,” Adkins said. “That all kind of goes in the wash with these warm-temperature days.”
A rainbow appears over downtown Juneau on Tuesday, June 18, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire File)
Two of the last three summers have come close to unseating the 2004 all-time mark. The average summer temperature three years ago was 58.3 degrees — second all-time — and last year’s was 58.0 degrees — third all-time.
“It was a really warm summer, people’s memory are not failing them,” Adkins said of the summer of 2018.
The city experienced the third-highest temperature in recorded history almost exactly one year ago. On June 20, 2018, the thermometer rose to 85 degrees for just the eighth time in recorded history. The capital city’s all-time high is 90 degrees, which occurred on July 7, 1975.
Kyle Wales waits and watches for a king salmon to rise in the Fish Creek Pond on Tuesday, June 25, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire File)
Care for those dogs
At least two dogs died last summer from overheating in cars. Juneau Animal Rescue Animal Control Officer and Director of Animal Control Karen Wood said the interior of a car parked in 70-degree weather can heat to 120 degrees in just 10 minutes, and recommended not leaving pets in cars when in 70- or 80-degree temperatures.
• Contact reporter Nolin Ainsworth at 523-2272 or nainsworth@juneauempire.com.
David Kimbrough, 7, right, Clayton Haywood, 6, center, and Kyla Belcourt, 8, play in sprinklers set up during the RALLY program at Harborview Elementary School on Wednesday, June 26, 2019. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire)
