About 1.7°F per decade, measured from Utqiagvik's official daily weather records, 1971–2025. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.
Is that a lot? Utqiagvik's climate has warmed faster than most other cities in United States.
What has actually changed
Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the
record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span
the headline and the chart use.
Freezing nights
35 fewer nights
1970s
321 / yr
→
Recent
286 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+6.3°F
1970s
9.5°F
→
Recent
15.8°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
about the same
1970s
0 / yr
→
Recent
0 / yr
About the same number of heat days
Rainy days
31 more days
1970s
88 / yr
→
Recent
119 / yr
Wetter on average
Utqiagvik's temperature, year by year
Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2025.
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year
Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones.
Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope,
not a straight climb.
In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 15 fewer freezing nights a year compared with the 1970s.
When in the year the change shows up
How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s.
Useful if you garden or care about a particular season —
otherwise the headline above already has the answer.
October has warmed the most — about 6.7°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.
Methodology & sources
Temperature — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at Barrow AP (NOAA GHCN station USW00027502), about 2 km from the city centre.