Thread: Weather in Alaska

I am a warm-weather perosn. What I hate the most about living in Ohio is winter weather. So naturally I always thought no way am I ever going to Alaska, even after my sister took a second anniversary cruisetour there on Princess in May 2003.

Since that cruisetour, my mom has been saying she wants to go on an Alaskan cruise, even though she is not a winter weather person either. So now I feel like this may be one more of the many places I never expected to visit that I will end up going to anyway because I have to travel with her no matter where I go. That makes me wonder if there is any month when Alaska is not cold in the day and never gets snow or ice anywhere along the coast. If not, I will stick with my plan to stay out of the 49th state.

Generally, the warmest months to see Alaska are July and August. That's why the fares are higher during these months.

If you stick to the Inside Passage itineraries during these 2 months you will have less chance of unusually cold weather.

That strip of Alaska that runs next to Canada is actually a rain forest, so you might expect to have some rain along the way.

There will be snow on the mountain tops, but not on the ground in the ports during the summer. It can be rainy at any time as Char said. I've been twice, both times we had rain in Ketchikan, aka rain forest, one time in Juneau it was rainy and cool, and one time it was sunny and hot. Skagway tends to be the warmest of the ports as it is further up the arm.

You just never know what mother nature will have in store. But it is so beautiful!

You won't get snow falling along the coast at any time during the cruise season (first of May until the end of September). My favorite time to go is late May and early June because that's the driest part of the summer - I'd rather have 3 or 4 degrees less warmth than any rain! The further into the summer you go, the wetter it gets - while September can be quite ugly, my 14-day repositioning sailing on the Radiance at the very end of September last year was glorious, so you just never know.