Best time to visit Anchorage

Anchorage is a city of two halves. July scores 66 and December scores 12 — a 54-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to August — 3 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 18.3 °C and January the coolest at -4.6 °C — a 22.9 °C spread across the year. It never reaches 30 °C in an average year, which takes heat off the list of reasons to avoid any particular month. At the other end, 159 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. July, August, September, October and December carry the rain — up to 17 wet days in a month — while March to May drop as low as 9. That 8-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Anchorage, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight swings hard — 19.3 hours at midsummer against 5.5 at midwinter. That 13.8-hour difference changes how much fits into a day more than the temperature does.

The three strongest months are July, June, August. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Anchorage month by month