See also:

Temperatures at Old Crow
 
Snow depths at Old Crow
 
Precipitation at Shingle Point
 
Stormy days at Inuvik, NWT

Arctic Borderlands Ecological Knowledge Co-op

What is happening?

• Precipitation totals at Old Crow show no trends of increasing or decreasing over the time period of measurement. Individual years with particularly high or low precipitation are easily picked out in the graphs.
• Precipitation in the summer at Old Crow is generally much higher than during fall, winter or spring.

Why is it happening?

• Precipitation levels are affected by variations in other climate variables, such as changes in mean temperatures or the frequency of storm systems passing through an area. Because there are many different factors that influence precipitation amounts, predictions of how precipitation levels in the northern Yukon will be affected by climate change are difficult to make.

Why is it important?

• The amount of snow in winter affects the movements of humans and other large mammals, habitat conditions for many small mammals, and winter insulation for insects and plants. The level of snow accumulation also affects the amount of water that is generated by melt during the spring.
• Summer rain levels have effects on the growth of plants, water levels in lakes and rivers, and human outdoor activities.

Technical Notes

• Trends in precipitation levels were tested using data from 1967 to 1996, with a significance threshold of p>0.05. Precipitation totals were calculated for March-May, June-August, September-November, and December-February. Winter totals are calculated using December values of the current year, and January and February values of the following year.
• Missing data points are due to a lack of sufficient data to calculate precipitation totals for those years.