End of Season Weather in Alaska

This year (2015) was an odd year weather wise (called a super El Nino year). Coastal BC had a very long and very dry summer. We booked the last cruise of the year on HAL (Sept.20-27, Vancouver return)) with trepidation, but those dates were the ones that worked for us. The weather in ALL ports and Glacier Bay was perfectly beautiful. We enjoyed blue skies and lots of sunshine the entire voyage. GB was cool - quite cold in the morning - layers of clothing and hand warmers solved this. The ports were "sweater weather" in the mornings, warming up to "shirtsleeves" in the afternoon.

We saw the tail end of the salmon run in Ketchikan, colourful leaves in Skagway and plenty of whales in Juneau. We sailed calm seas all the way up the coast and back to Vancouver.

Just wanted to add this info for others trying to research their voyages. Possibly a result of a super el nino year, but fantastic nonetheless.

And Anchorage just got 17 inches of snow on Sept 29- one of the earliest snow falls of that quantity on record.

It is just not predictable. This year's late season weather will have no impact on next summer. IIRC, last September they had some huge winds in September.

This year (2015) was an odd year weather wise (called a super El Nino year). Coastal BC had a very long and very dry summer. We booked the last cruise of the year on HAL (Sept.20-27, Vancouver return)) with trepidation, but those dates were the ones that worked for us. The weather in ALL ports and Glacier Bay was perfectly beautiful. We enjoyed blue skies and lots of sunshine the entire voyage. GB was cool - quite cold in the morning - layers of clothing and hand warmers solved this. The ports were "sweater weather" in the mornings, warming up to "shirtsleeves" in the afternoon.

 

We saw the tail end of the salmon run in Ketchikan, colourful leaves in Skagway and plenty of whales in Juneau. We sailed calm seas all the way up the coast and back to Vancouver.

 

Just wanted to add this info for others trying to research their voyages. Possibly a result of a super el nino year, but fantastic nonetheless.

We had the same on our Sep 4-11...yes it can change...but then weather anywhere is a gamble...I tend to not let that possibility be a determining factor when booking.

Most likely you did only a cruise. If you had done a land tour to Denali for example, starting the weekend of Aug 29th you would have had a very good chance of encountering snow in Denali NP and delays or even cancellations of some of the shuttle buses. Some tour buses didn't get as far as they normally would. This happened multiple times from Aug 29 through when the buses stopped operating on Sep 16.

Sometimes it works out great, sometimes not. Traveling in September gives a much greater chance of issues with weather than other months, especially north of Anchorage.

Just a report of the wide weather range in Sept. BUT such favorable happenings, are not common. :) Overall, Sept, has the worse weather- potential, of the entire season. I do sail in this timeframe- but always have trips early the same year. I am well prepared for most weather- but my biggest reason for not preferring it, is the lack of daylight. This was a banner year- for the weather, and ability to see aurora, which also isn't common on the inside passage. :)

And Anchorage just got 17 inches of snow on Sept 29- one of the earliest snow falls of that quantity on record.

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Umm... Double check your number. It wasn't 17 inches in Anchorage... Fairbanks got a good dump, but even then it wasn't 17 inches.

Actually, Fairbanks got 11.2 inches: http://www.adn.com/article/20150930/fairbanks-area-hammered-heavy-snow-power-outages

Anchorage got four inches in some areas, and officially got 2.5 inches: http://www.adn.com/article/20150930/power-restored-most-anchorage-after-snow-laden-trees-cleared

Just a report of the wide weather range in Sept. BUT such favorable happenings, are not common. :) Overall, Sept, has the worse weather- potential, of the entire season. I do sail in this timeframe- but always have trips early the same year. I am well prepared for most weather- but my biggest reason for not preferring it, is the lack of daylight. This was a banner year- for the weather, and ability to see aurora, which also isn't common on the inside passage. :)

Thanks BQ, you are correct, this was just to offer what had happened for us. It was qualified by the fact that it is an odd year for sure (super el nino) and it applied only to the southern ports visited on a 7 day return from Vancouver (GB, Skagway, Juneau and Ketchikan). It was our experience with the wide range of weather possible.:) We heard about the aurora sightings the week prior, so spent much of the evening up in the basketball court, out of Ketchikan. We didn't have luck with that, but caught the moon in spectacular mode. Had we stayed on board one more night, we would have seen the Super Moon Lunar Eclipse. Now that would have been amazing from the ship!!

Umm... Double check your number. It wasn't 17 inches in Anchorage... Fairbanks got a good dump, but even then it wasn't 17 inches.

Actually, Fairbanks got 11.2 inches: http://www.adn.com/article/20150930/fairbanks-area-hammered-heavy-snow-power-outages

Anchorage got four inches in some areas, and officially got 2.5 inches: http://www.adn.com/article/20150930/power-restored-most-anchorage-after-snow-laden-trees-cleared

Sorry- it was reported as up to 17 inches on the national media today.

Sorry- it was reported as up to 17 inches on the national media today.

No worries...

Like most places in the world, you never know what the weather will be like year to year.

Keith

Most likely you did only a cruise. If you had done a land tour to Denali for example, starting the weekend of Aug 29th you would have had a very good chance of encountering snow in Denali NP and delays or even cancellations of some of the shuttle buses. Some tour buses didn't get as far as they normally would. This happened multiple times from Aug 29 through when the buses stopped operating on Sep 16.

 

Sometimes it works out great, sometimes not. Traveling in September gives a much greater chance of issues with weather than other months, especially north of Anchorage.

I have posted threads asking about this issue, with little or no response.

Finally, someone is interested in the same question.

We booked a northbound seven day cruise on the NCL Sun from Vancouver 5-12 September 2016. After researching for tours to Denali post-cruise, I came to the conclusion that we were skipping Denali, since it would be too late in the season. Most tour companies don't even offer a tour to Denali this time of the year. Even when Denali is open then, you are likely to be restricted in how far in the park you can go.

We decided to take a Canadian Rockies four day tour from Calgary to Vancouver pre-cruise and spend a few days in Vancouver instead.

I have posted threads asking about this issue, with little or no response.

 

Finally, someone is interested in the same question.

 

We booked a northbound seven day cruise on the NCL Sun from Vancouver 5-12 September 2016. After researching for tours to Denali post-cruise, I came to the conclusion that we were skipping Denali, since it would be too late in the season. Most tour companies don't even offer a tour to Denali this time of the year. Even when Denali is open then, you are likely to be restricted in how far in the park you can go.

 

We decided to take a Canadian Rockies four day tour from Calgary to Vancouver pre-cruise and spend a few days in Vancouver instead.

For others- Denali can be spectacular in this time frame. A LOT of bear action with power feeding, caribou herding up etc. it isn't a matter of just seeing "snow" and no scenery. There is so much difference in a journey in, you can indeed get the distance a lot of times. Think about it- the road lottery- for YEARS has had the same opening to the general public following the shuttle bus closure. So, plenty of people enjoy going in the park. Added possibility is superb aurora viewing.

So the above thinking- it is "too late" simply is not accurate.

Like most places in the world, you never know what the weather will be like year to year.

 

Keith

So true...."Climate is what we can predict, but weather is what we get"!

Went up there Sept15ish several yrs. ago. Almost all the glaciers were gone. A real downer,only reason I went so late was B2B on to Hawaii which was great. The weather was fine but scenery not.

Went up there Sept15ish several yrs. ago. Almost all the glaciers were gone. A real downer,only reason I went so late was B2B on to Hawaii which was great. The weather was fine but scenery not.

"glaciers gone"????????? Interesting- since the glaciers sailed by with cruise ships are all still there.

You must have been on a round trip Vancouver- which has plenty more, as well, then a usual single sailing day of glaciers.

For others- Denali can be spectacular in this time frame. A LOT of bear action with power feeding, caribou herding up etc. it isn't a matter of just seeing "snow" and no scenery. There is so much difference in a journey in, you can indeed get the distance a lot of times. Think about it- the road lottery- for YEARS has had the same opening to the general public following the shuttle bus closure. So, plenty of people enjoy going in the park. Added possibility is superb aurora viewing.

 

So the above thinking- it is "too late" simply is not accurate.

Budget Queen,

I thought about booking my flight to leave three days for us to rent a car and give Denali a shot. If we can't get into Denali, we could see stuff around Anchorage.

Is the lottery the only option?

Does the shuttle still run the week of 12 September?

Budget Queen,

I thought about booking my flight to leave three days for us to rent a car and give Denali a shot. If we can't get into Denali, we could see stuff around Anchorage.

Is the lottery the only option?

Does the shuttle still run the week of 12 September?

The lottery isn't around 9-12. Shuttles are still running the "week" of the 12th, but, NOT the entire week, they will be closing. This year they were closed 9-17

We had a beautiful trip SB on August 29 but I wasn't expecting to have fantastic weather. We got very lucky this year and the ports were dry and sunny for the most part.

Those who did pre-cruise trips to Denali got snow and most weren't happy about it.

My three previous trips in May/early June were not nearly as nice weather wise - so who knows from year to year. I enjoyed all of them though :D

Weather is always hard to predict in Alaska and what happen last year, last month or last week has no bearing on what's going to happen next week let alone next year. We have done a number of cruises in late August thru September and statistically the weather is the poorest of the season. However while we have experienced some pretty stormy days in this time period we have also experienced says when the temps were in the mid-70's and people were in shorts and t-shirts.