This weather has a price Keeping the median Northwest Arctic Borough home comfortable runs roughly $1,536 a year in heating and cooling alone. See where it lands in the monthly bill

30-year climate normals

Northwest Arctic Borough Climate and Weather Averages

Hottest month: July

60.1°

average daily high. The coldest month is January, averaging a low of -8.4°F.

Northwest Arctic Borough gets 11.36" of precipitation a year and 64.2" of snow, and 45% of it falls in Jul, Aug, Sep.

Temperature through the year

Each bar spans the average daily low to the average daily high for that month.

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Precip	Snow
January	4.5°	-8.4°	0.62"	9.4"
February	8.6°	-5.8°	0.85"	13.1"
March	9.1°	-6.0°	0.52"	6.4"
April	23.8°	8.8°	0.56"	4.7"
May	39.0°	27.3°	0.44"	1.2"
June	53.2°	41.8°	0.60"	0.0"
July	60.1°	50.5°	1.60"	0.0"
August	56.6°	47.7°	2.13"	0.0"
September	47.5°	38.7°	1.42"	0.6"
October	30.8°	23.0°	1.07"	5.9"
November	15.9°	5.6°	0.82"	11.0"
December	8.6°	-3.8°	0.73"	11.9"

Rainfall by month

Northwest Arctic Borough has a distinct wet season. 45% of the year's precipitation arrives in Jul, Aug, Sep.

January 0.62"

February 0.85"

March 0.52"

April 0.56"

May 0.44"

June 0.60"

July 1.60"

August 2.13"

September 1.42"

October 1.07"

November 0.82"

December 0.73"

Annual total 11.36"

What this climate costs you

Degree days measure how hard a building has to work to stay comfortable. They are the reason two identical houses have very different power bills, and they are the link between the weather here and what you pay every month.

Cooling degree days How much air conditioning the climate demands 5

Heating degree days How much heating the climate demands 14,907

Approximate annual cooling cost At 29.41¢/kWh, Alaska average $1

Approximate annual electric heating cost Lower where heating is gas rather than electric $1,534

These are rough planning figures from degree days and the state electricity price, not a bill estimate. House size, insulation and fuel type move them a lot. See the full cost of owning a home in Northwest Arctic Borough, where electricity is one line of eight.

Common questions

What is the weather like in Northwest Arctic Borough?

Northwest Arctic Borough averages a high of 60.1°F in July and a low of -8.4°F in January. Annual precipitation is 11.36 inches, including 64.2 inches of snow.

When is the rainy season in Northwest Arctic Borough?

The wettest stretch is Jul, Aug, Sep, which accounts for 45% of the year's precipitation. That is a pronounced wet season rather than rain spread evenly through the year.

How hot does it get in Northwest Arctic Borough?

The average daily high in July, the hottest month, is 60.1°F. That drives 5 cooling degree days a year, which is what your air conditioning has to work against.

Does it snow in Northwest Arctic Borough?

Yes. Northwest Arctic Borough averages 64.2 inches of snow a year.

Sources

Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 1991 to 2020 Monthly Climate Normals, station KOTZEBUE RALPH WEIN AP, AK US (USW00026616), 71.3 miles from the county centroid.
Heating and cooling degree days: NOAA, same station and period.
Annual figures on this page are the sum of that station's twelve monthly normals. NOAA also publishes a separately-computed annual normal, which can differ from the monthly sum by a few percent; we use the monthly series because the month-by-month breakdown above has to come from it.
Electricity price: US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A, Alaska residential average.
Wet-season share is the wettest three consecutive months as a percentage of annual precipitation, calculated from the monthly normals.