Persistent high pressure aloft in the eastern Pacific from Washington to Southeast Alaska and low pressure over the central Bering Sea brought repeated pushes of warm and moist air into Alaska during October, especially during the second half of the month. The winter snow cover is usually established during October in Interior Alaska, but this year most areas had little or no snow cover until the last days of the month, and this also allowed temperatures to remain warm. Sea ice remained north of the Arctic coast all month, helping to boost temperatures and precipitation on the North Slope. October 2013 finished up as one of the warmest Octobers of record across much of Alaska. Some places with more than 90 years of records, including Anchorage (43.0°F) and Kotze-bue (34.7°F) have never experienced an October as warm as 2013. Western Alaska generally saw October temperatures in the top three of record, with many areas close to the warm October of 2006. Cold Bay, at the western end of the Alaska Peninsula, had the warmest October of record, with an average temperature more than five degrees above normal at 46.0°F; for the marine-dominated climate that prevails in this area, that is a remarkable departure.
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