About 0.4°F per decade, measured from Fairbanks'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? Fairbanks's warming is broadly in line with other cities in United States — neither unusually fast nor unusually slow.
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
2 fewer nights
1970s
219 / yr
→
Recent
217 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+1.2°F
1970s
27.8°F
→
Recent
29.0°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
about the same
1970s
111 / yr
→
Recent
111 / yr
Rainfall pattern about the same
Fairbanks'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.
Methodology & sources
Temperature — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at Fairbanks Intl AP (NOAA GHCN station USW00026411), about 8 km from the city centre.