NOAA's National Weather Service, Juneau, Alaska

We are located in Juneau, Alaska's capital city, in the Panhandle region of the state. The Southeast Alaska Panhandle is approximately 500 miles long by 120 miles wide and consists of a narrow mainland strip of steep mountains, icefields and glaciers along with several thousand islands that make up the Alexander Archipelago. Seventy-seven percent of the Panhandle is the 17-million acre Tongass National Forest; a temperate rainforest of Sitka spruce, Western hemlock, blueberries, salmonberries, ferns and huge skunk cabbages.

Temperate means the area is in the mid-latitudes, and rainforest means it receives more than 60 inches of precipitation per year! That number varies widely over the Panhandle with the northern town of Skagway averaging around 18 inches per year while some areas over the southern end of Baranof Island average around 150 inches per year. Juneau averages around 54 inches annually at the airport, but over 90 inches downtown. Most of the precipitation comes in the fall and winter with the "dry season" normally in late spring and early summer.

June, July and August are the warmest months of the year with average daily highs creeping above 60 degrees...peaking in July with an average max of 63.8. July is also the month Juneau set its all-time high temperature of 90 degrees on July 7, 1975.

Juneau is located on Gastineau Channel in the Inside Passage about 900 miles north of Seattle and 600 miles southeast of Anchorage. There are no roads leading into or out of town so all travelers come by air or by water. In the summer Alaska Airlines has over a dozen flights per day into and out of town, while the Alaska Marine Highway ferries make frequent trips north and south with passenger and cars. Juneau is the third largest city in the state, after Anchorage and Fairbanks, with a population of around 30,000. The local economy is based mainly on State, local and Federal government, tourism, mining, fishing and logging.

Southeast Alaska does not have the "midnight sun" experienced further north in Alaska, but day length is much longer in the summer and much shorter in the winter. At the summer solstice daylight in Juneau lasts for 18 hours and 18 minutes while the sun is up on the winter solstice for only 6 hours and 21 minutes.

The Juneau Forecast Office is located in the Mendenhall Valley, just a few miles from the terminus of the Mendenhall Glacier. The office is approximately 10 miles from downtown Juneau, and 3 miles from the airport.