2014 was Alaska's warmest year on record

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – The National Weather Service is confirming what a lot of Alaskans concluded about temperatures last year 2014 was warm.

The agency says 2014 surpassed 1926 as Alaska’s warmest year on record.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the United States National Weather Service Alaska made the announcement on its Facebook page based on information from the National Climatic Data Center.

Weather data for Alaska goes back to 1918.

To determine the warmest year, the climatic data center pulls temperature data from reporting stations and computes the statewide departure from the long-term average.

McGrath, Nome, Kotzebue, Bethel, Cold Bay, King Salmon and Homer experienced their warmest years on record in 2014.

The warm year was helped by exceptionally mild temperatures statewide in January, May, November and December.