56°23′30″N 134°39′23″W / 56.39167°N 134.65639°W Port Walter is located on the southeastern side of Baranof Island in Sitka City and Borough, Alaska. It is made up of two parts: Little Port Walter and Big Port Walter.
Little Port Walter was the home of a herring saltery during the turn on the century and the ruins can still be seen. Little Port Walter had a small community at one time but has been replaced by a research station that studies the life cycles of several species of Salmon. There is a staff of 3–15 state and federal employees running the research station year-round. There is a dock, and the harbor itself is a safe anchorage. [1] [2]
Climate edit
Little Port Walter has an oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) that borders a subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc), with only four months having average temperatures above 50 °F or 10 °C. It receives an average annual precipitation of over 226 inches or 5,700 millimetres[3][4] and as such is the wettest permanent settlement in the United States and among the wettest in the world with lengthy climate records. As many as seventy-eight days per year see over 1 in (25 mm) of rain and/or snowfall per year,[5] while in October 1974 69.23 in (1,758.4 mm) of rain fell and in January 1985 61.67 in (1,566.4 mm). The record daily precipitation was 14.84 in (376.9 mm) on 6 December 1964. The driest month was February 1989 with 0.63 in (16.0 mm), while the hottest day on record was August 12 of 1990 with 88 °F (31.1 °C) and the coldest January 2 of 1966 with 0 °F (−17.8 °C) overnight. The heaviest snowfall in a month was 94.2 in (2.39 m) in December 2001.
| Climate data for Little Port Walter, Alaska (1991–2020 normals,[6] extremes 1936–present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 59 (15) |
58 (14) |
58 (14) |
67 (19) |
72 (22) |
80 (27) |
79 (26) |
88 (31) |
73 (23) |
61 (16) |
57 (14) |
55 (13) |
88 (31) |
| Mean maximum °F (°C) | 48.1 (8.9) |
47.8 (8.8) |
48.9 (9.4) |
55.7 (13.2) |
64.8 (18.2) |
70.2 (21.2) |
71.0 (21.7) |
70.5 (21.4) |
63.9 (17.7) |
56.7 (13.7) |
51.5 (10.8) |
48.1 (8.9) |
74.2 (23.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 37.9 (3.3) |
38.9 (3.8) |
40.8 (4.9) |
46.7 (8.2) |
53.8 (12.1) |
58.3 (14.6) |
61.3 (16.3) |
61.3 (16.3) |
56.3 (13.5) |
49.2 (9.6) |
42.5 (5.8) |
38.9 (3.8) |
48.8 (9.3) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 34.4 (1.3) |
35.1 (1.7) |
36.3 (2.4) |
41.2 (5.1) |
47.3 (8.5) |
52.4 (11.3) |
55.8 (13.2) |
55.9 (13.3) |
51.7 (10.9) |
45.0 (7.2) |
38.7 (3.7) |
35.6 (2.0) |
44.1 (6.7) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 30.9 (−0.6) |
31.3 (−0.4) |
31.9 (−0.1) |
35.8 (2.1) |
40.8 (4.9) |
46.4 (8.0) |
50.4 (10.2) |
50.5 (10.3) |
47.0 (8.3) |
40.8 (4.9) |
35.0 (1.7) |
32.3 (0.2) |
39.4 (4.1) |
| Mean minimum °F (°C) | 19.3 (−7.1) |
20.7 (−6.3) |
21.2 (−6.0) |
27.5 (−2.5) |
32.7 (0.4) |
38.6 (3.7) |
42.8 (6.0) |
43.1 (6.2) |
37.9 (3.3) |
30.6 (−0.8) |
24.5 (−4.2) |
21.8 (−5.7) |
13.8 (−10.1) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 0 (−18) |
3 (−16) |
5 (−15) |
18 (−8) |
24 (−4) |
32 (0) |
34 (1) |
35 (2) |
26 (−3) |
23 (−5) |
4 (−16) |
4 (−16) |
0 (−18) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 27.97 (710) |
18.93 (481) |
18.11 (460) |
14.65 (372) |
12.23 (311) |
7.85 (199) |
10.37 (263) |
16.74 (425) |
25.72 (653) |
31.61 (803) |
29.39 (747) |
32.15 (817) |
245.72 (6,241) |
| Average snowfall inches (cm) | 28.0 (71) |
19.7 (50) |
20.1 (51) |
1.7 (4.3) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.4 (1.0) |
10.3 (26) |
21.6 (55) |
101.8 (259) |
| Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 24.2 | 19.6 | 20.7 | 18.8 | 15.0 | 14.8 | 15.0 | 16.7 | 21.3 | 24.1 | 24.4 | 24.6 | 239.2 |
| Average snowy days (≥ 0.1 in) | 8.0 | 6.0 | 6.8 | 1.1 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | 3.4 | 7.1 | 32.8 |
| Source 1: NOAA[7] | |||||||||||||
| Source 2: National Weather Service[8] | |||||||||||||
Demographics edit
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1940 | 21 | — | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[9] | |||
Port Walter appeared once on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 21 residents. This was actually referring to "Big Port Walter."[10] It has not reported again on the census, and was later annexed into Sitka.
References edit
- ^ "Little Port Walter Facility". United States of America, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
- ^ "Little Port Walter Field Station". United States of America, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Alaska Fisheries Science Center.
- ^ "Climate at Little Port Walter". Alaska Climate Research Center, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
- ^ "SouthEast Alaska Frequently Asked Questions, Precipitation at Little Port Walter". United States Department of Agriculture, United States Forest Service. Archived from the original on 2011-08-17. Retrieved 2008-04-24.
- ^ General Precipitation Tables for Little Port Walter
- ^ Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.
- ^ "U.S. Climate Normals Quick Access – Station: Little Port Walter, AK". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
- ^ "NOAA Online Weather Data – NWS Juneau". National Weather Service. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
- ^ "U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
- ^ "Geological Survey Professional Paper". 1949.