On Saturday, Anchorage's 36-day (and 62 out of 63 days) streak of above-normal temperatures that extended back to just after Thanksgiving came to an end, according to the National Weather Service.
Saturday ended up 1 degree below normal, bottoming out at 10 degrees Saturday morning at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.
That ended a sultry stretch that, on average, was 8.3 degrees above normal. Anchorage's last below-normal day came back when we were consuming turkey leftovers, Nov. 27th (also 1 degree below normal).
Our brush with cool temperatures may not last long. "After a very unseasonably warm start to the winter, a shift in the weather pattern will bring near normal to slightly below normal temperatures to Southcentral Alaska through midweek -- a welcome change from the gloomy and warm winter thus far," according to the National Weather Service's website. Then it warms up again.
The 36-day streak doesn't approach the record 84 consecutive days above normal between Dec. 11, 1976 and March 4, 1977 -- a period when the average was 15.5 degrees above normal.
Several other Anchorage also ended a number of consecutive-day record streaks with the low of 5 degrees F Sunday morning. Among the Anchorage records to end:
• Days at or above 13 degrees: 289 days (old record was 278 days);
• Days at or above 12 degrees: 300 days (old record was 278 days);
• Days at or above 11 degrees: 300 days (old record was 281 days);
• Days at or above 10 degrees: 301 days (old record was 289 days);
• Days at or above 9 degrees: 301 days (old record was 289 days); and
• Days at or above 8 degrees: 301 days (old record was 290 days)