2025 growing season one of the longest in Fairbanks history

Two graphics showing the length of the growing season and first autumn frost date in Fairbanks
By Rick Thoman/ACCAP The top image shows a chart of the length of the Fairbanks growing seasons since 1912, with the top 10 longest indicated in red. The bottom image shows the dates of the first autumn freeze at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm since 1911.

Julie Stricker
907-474-5406
Oct. 17, 2025

The 2025 Fairbanks growing season officially ended on Sept. 24, according to measurements taken at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm on the ҹɫ Troth Yeddha’ Campus.

The freeze on Sept. 24 ended a 129-day growing season, defined as the number of days between freezing temperatures, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the UAF Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness. May 17 was the final spring freeze at the farm. That freeze-free length ties with several other recent years as the fourth longest. 

Thoman said the Sept. 24 date is tied with 2001 for the fourth latest in the past 114 years. The farm's weather station is Alaska’s longest-operating climate station in the same place, recording measurements since the summer of 1911. 

“Note that all 10 of the latest first freezes have been since 2001, as have nine of the 10 longest seasons,” Thoman said. The 1993 season is the only pre-21st century in the top 10. 

The growing season has expanded by 38 days or 47 percent since a century ago, with the 1912 growing season clocking in at 89 days. The shortest growing seasons were in 1933 (39 days from June 10-July 19) and 1934 (40 days from May 31-July 10).

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