Anchorage is located in South Central Alaska, at 61 °13′06″ North latitude (slightly farther north than Oslo, Helsinki and St. Petersburg), 149 °53′57″ West longitude, northeast of the Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and Cook Inlet, due north of the Kenai Peninsula, northwest of Prince William Sound and Alaska Panhandle, and nearly due south of Mount McKinley/Denali.

The city is situated on a triangular peninsula bordered on the east by the Chugach Mountains, on the northwest by the Kink Arm, and on the southwest by the Turn again Arm, upper branches of the Cook Inlet, which itself is the northernmost reach of the Pacific Ocean. The Chugach Mountains to the east have a general elevation of 4,000 to 5,000 feet, with peaks from 8,000 to 10,000 feet.

These mountains block warm air from the Gulf of Mexico, keeping precipitation relatively low. The Alaska Range to the north protects the city from cold air from the state’s interior; thus temperatures in Anchorage are usually 25 to 30 degrees warmer than temperatures in the rest of the state. While the area has four seasons, their length and characteristics differ from those of the middle latitudes; snows arrive in October and leave in mid-April, while annual average snowfall is seventy inches. Daylight hours vary from 19 in late June to 6 in late December.

Despite this, the city lacks coastal beaches, instead having wide, treacherous mudflats. Adjacent to the north is Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska. To the south is Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, and to the east is Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska. The area of Anchorage is larger than that of Rhode Island. The center of population of Alaska is located approximately 40 miles east of Anchorage.