 This study quantifies spatiotemporal variability of rain on snow, ROS, events across Alaska during the cold season and clarifies the influence of precipitation and temperature variations on these patterns. The study shows that ROS events are most common in autumn and spring months along the maritime Bering Sea coast and boreal interior regions, but infrequent on the colder Arctic north slope. The frequency and extent of ROS events coincide with warm temperature anomalies, but show a weaker relationship with precipitation due to factors such as large uncertainty in cold season precipitation measurements and the important contribution of humidity and turbulent energy transfer in driving snowmelt and icing events independent of rainfall. The results suggest that as high latitude temperatures increase, wet snow and ROS events will also increase in frequency and extent, particularly in the southwestern and interior regions of Alaska.