Demonstrating the bipolar nature of its climate, Fort Yukon is also subject to severe winters, being less influenced by chinook winds than areas to the west—the winter season absolute maximum being colder than in Fairbanks. Until 1971, Fort Yukon held the all-time lowest temperature record for Alaska and the United States at , and it still holds the record for the lowest mean monthly temperature when the notoriously cold month of December 1917 had an average daily temperature of and the minimum averaged .