What to look for in nature in Alaska this February

How much daylight does Alaska gain in February?

• Marmot Day and the real middle of winter

  Tuesday, February 2, and Wednesday, February 3 · Statewide

  Alaska does not wait for a groundhog. State law (AS 44.12.110) sets aside February 2 as Marmot Day, to be marked by schools, the Alaska Zoo, civic groups and anyone else who wants to. No marmot will be checking its shadow, though: ADF&G describes hoary marmots as true hibernators that spend the winter alone in their burrows, so none will be out looking for a shadow. Astronomers put the exact middle of the season a day later. Measured by the sun’s position, it falls at about 4:43 p.m. Alaska Standard Time on February 3; measured by the clock, it lands near 11:38 p.m. that same night.

Is February still deep winter in Alaska, and where does the most snow fall?

• Snow that keeps on piling up

  Through February and into March · Prince William Sound, the coastal mountains, Thompson Pass above Valdez

  Moist air from the Gulf of Alaska rises into the Chugach Mountains and drops its load as snow, which is why Valdez and the pass above it are buried every winter. Valdez’s normals show February still adding about as much snow as January, so the mountain snowpack keeps building, good news for skiers and a reason for caution on steep slopes (see the safety notes below).

• Ice fog in the Interior

  Calm spells of deep cold · Fairbanks and other Interior towns

  The Geophysical Institute’s Alaska Science Forum explains that ice fog has a threshold of about −30 °F: it forms only when the air gets that cold and clears once it warms past it. Below that, water vapor from tailpipes, chimneys, heating plants and even the breath of people and dogs cools so fast that it turns straight into ice particles too small to see one by one. Together they make a low, glittering cloud over town and roads that lasts as long as the deep cold does.

What is in the sky over Alaska in February 2027?

• Mercury low in the evening twilight

  Late January to about February 10; farthest from the sun on the evening of February 2 · Low in the west-southwest, 30 to 45 minutes after sunset

  Early February brings this winter’s best chance to catch Mercury after sunset. It never climbs far from the horizon, so you need a clear, flat view to the southwest and ideally binoculars. On the evening of Sunday, February 7, a hairline crescent just past new appears near it.

• Jupiter at opposition

  Wednesday, February 10 · Rising in the east at sunset, high in the south around midnight

  Jupiter lines up opposite the sun at 3:21 p.m. on February 10, which means it comes up around sunset, is visible all night and outshines every star. It is in the constellation Leo this year. Steady binoculars show its four large moons, which change position from night to night.

• Mars at opposition

  Friday, February 19 (closest to Earth on the 20th) · In Leo, not far from Jupiter, all night

  Mars reaches opposition early on February 19 and passes closest to Earth the next day, about 63 million miles away. This is a small, distant opposition, so Mars looks like a bright orange star rather than a blazing beacon, yet the planet will not come this near again until 2029. Overnight from February 19 to 20, the almost-full moon slides just past Jupiter.

• The Snow Moon

  Full at 2:23 p.m. on Saturday, February 20 · Rises in the east around 6:17 p.m. in Anchorage

  February’s full moon is usually called the Snow Moon. Some almanacs label it a supermoon; by the tighter rule others use, it is merely a near miss. That evening the moon rises with Jupiter, Mars and the bright star Regulus gathered around it in Leo. A faint penumbral eclipse takes place the same day, but it ends at 4:13 p.m. Alaska time, before the moon comes up, so nothing of it can be seen from Alaska. The annular solar eclipse on February 6 is visible only from the far Southern Hemisphere and cannot be seen anywhere in the United States.

• Aurora in the dark of the moon

  Moonless evenings about February 2 to 11 · Interior and Arctic best; low in the north from the south coast

  With new moon on February 6, the first third of the month offers the darkest evenings for watching the northern lights. Solar maximum, which NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center dates to October 2024, is behind us, but sunspot numbers remain moderate and strong storms are still possible. Check the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute forecast and the cloud forecast together before driving out.

When are bear cubs born in Alaska?

• Brown bear cubs

  Born in January and February · Dens on mountain slopes and hillsides from Southeast to the North Slope

  State biologists say brown bear cubs arrive in the den in January and February, most often as twins, with one to four in a litter. The family stays sealed in until June, when ADF&G says the cubs may weigh up to 15 pounds.

• Black bear cubs

  Born in the winter den · Forested Alaska, from Southeast to the Interior

  ADF&G’s Wildlife Notebook describes newborn black bear cubs as blind, nearly hairless and under a pound at birth. Two cubs is the usual litter, though one to four may be born. In the north, black bears may stay dormant seven or eight months, and mothers with new cubs come out later than other bears.

When do wolves and red foxes breed in Alaska?

• Wolves

  Breeding peaks from about late February to mid-March · Throughout mainland Alaska and much of Southeast

  The Denali Education Center places the peak of wolf breeding between about late February and mid-March. A female’s cycle runs about a month, but she is receptive only during its last five days or so. Pups follow about 63 days later, typically around six in an Alaska litter, and stay in the den for roughly two months. February is a good time to listen for a pack’s howl, which the center describes as a long, guttural, quavering wail.

• Red foxes

  Breeding in February and March · Statewide, including town edges, river bars and coastal tundra

  ADF&G says red foxes breed in February and March. After 51 to 54 days the female gives birth in a den, often a long burrow on the side of a knoll with several entrances, and four pups is a typical litter. Both parents raise the young. Besides the familiar red, Alaska foxes come in cross (with a dark cross over the back and shoulders), silver and black phases. Voles are a favorite food, and foxes cache extra food, coming back to check on it and sometimes burying it again in the same spot.

What is happening under the ice in February?

• Burbot spawning in a writhing ball

  Late winter, February to March · Lakes and big rivers, including the Yukon, the Tanana and Interior lakes

  The burbot, Alaska’s only freshwater member of the cod family, spawns at the very coldest time of year. ADF&G describes them spawning under the ice in late winter, from February to March, sometimes milling together in a large, writhing ball. They build no nest; eggs and milt are simply released into the water and drift to the bottom. A big female can produce more than a million eggs, each only about a millimeter across.

• Beavers mating in the lodge

  January or February · Ponds, sloughs and slow streams statewide, except the far north

  Beavers mate in January or February, ADF&G says, sealed inside their lodges beneath the ice. They live through winter on the branches they stored in an underwater food pile in fall, swimming out through a tunnel kept below the ice. The two to four kits are born from late April to June. On a frosty morning it is worth checking the top of a snow-covered lodge: a patch of frost or bare sticks there can hint that the family inside is home.

• Ice fishing at stocked lakes

  All winter · Anchorage and Mat-Su lakes; Harding, Birch and Quartz lakes on the Richardson Highway

  ADF&G stocks more than 130 lakes in Southcentral every year with rainbow trout, Arctic char, Arctic grayling and landlocked king and silver salmon, and several in the Anchorage area are stocked with catchable salmon especially for winter fishing. In the Interior, the department’s Fairbanks staff point to Harding, Birch and Quartz lakes between Fairbanks and Delta Junction, where the ice commonly passes three feet thick by mid-January.

How do Sitka black-tailed deer survive late winter in Southeast Alaska?

• Living on the forest’s winter pantry

  All winter · Old-growth forest of Southeast, Prince William Sound and Kodiak

  In winter, ADF&G says, black-tailed deer depend on evergreen forbs and woody browse such as blueberry, yellow cedar and hemlock, along with lichens that grow on trees. Big old-growth trees matter because their thick canopy catches snow and keeps the ground beneath them more open. When snow gets very deep, many deer move down into heavily timbered stands at low elevation, and some end up on the beach.

• Deer on the beach and seaweed for dinner

  Deep-snow winters, late winter into spring · Beach fringe along Southeast and Prince William Sound shorelines

  Older ADF&G research from Prince William Sound found that when deep snow pushed deer to the shore, they turned to kelp for most of their diet. Seaweed keeps them going for a while, but the researchers found that once deer were stuck on the beaches for about two months, deaths from starvation began. A 2022 department article on the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands describes the severe winter of 2006–2007, when snow lay nine feet deep above the high-tide line and beach surveys counted 3.8 dead deer per mile. Recent milder years have been far lower. Fawns, with the least fat, are the most likely to die.

Which birds are singing and hunting in Alaska in February?

• Boreal owls start to sing

  Late January through late April · Mixed spruce and birch forest in the Interior, the upper Kobuk Valley, Kodiak and western Southcentral

  The boreal owl, only 8 to 9 inches long, is one of the earliest birds in Alaska to start singing. ADF&G puts its calling season from late January through late April and describes the song as a rapid, soft, evenly repeated “po-po-po-po” that can carry up to a mile and a half. Females are much heavier than males, about 6.4 ounces to 3.8.

• Gyrfalcons, the ptarmigan hunters

  All winter · Open tundra and mountains: the Alaska and Brooks ranges, the Seward Peninsula, the North Slope, treeless parts of Southcentral

  The gyrfalcon is the largest falcon in the world, and most of Alaska’s stay through winter. ADF&G notes that they are not generally migratory but may wander south in winter when prey runs short. Ptarmigan are a staple, and a gyrfalcon can outfly most birds in a straight chase. Pairs often return to the same cliff ledge each year and lay eggs, usually in May.

• The Great Backyard Bird Count

  Friday, February 12, to Monday, February 15 · Anywhere, including your own window

  The National Audubon Society lists the 2027 Great Backyard Bird Count for February 12–15. A quarter hour of counting on any of the four days, entered online afterward, is enough to take part.

How far does the sea ice reach in February?

• A fragile late-winter peak

  February and March · Bering and Chukchi seas

  The ice can also retreat quickly in the middle of winter. NOAA’s Arctic Report Card for 2019 describes how Bering Sea ice shrank by 82 percent between late January and early March that year, the largest retreat in January or February in the satellite record, after record-low ice in 2018. Warm water, late freeze-up and southerly storms all play a part.

• Ringed seals in snow caves

  All winter; pups born April to May · Landfast and pack ice of the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort seas

  Ringed seals spend the winter under solid ice, keeping breathing holes open by scratching at them with the claws of their front flippers. Over some holes they hollow out caves, or lairs, in the snow drifted on top of the ice, where they rest and later give birth. ADF&G says the pups arrive in these lairs in April or May, weighing about 10 pounds and wrapped in white, woolly fur. ADF&G counts thinner snow on the ice among the threats to their pupping.

What can families do outdoors in Alaska this February?

Safety notes for February in Alaska