Cold Day in the Alaskan Wonderland

The cold has crept into Alaska over the last couple of days making things interesting again. The interior is even colder with their temperatures around the minus 40˚ to - 60˚F below zero. On top of that some areas are getting high winds for the next two days.

Texas and Louisiana has their hurricanes but for most people I think they could not even fathom hurricane winds at 40 below. That probably puts the wind chill factor below minus 100+ below zero. That’s Alaska tonight and I do not see the Weather Channel or Today Show doing any live broadcasts from here. They’re wussies I guess as I talked to one of my contacts in Fairbanks earlier today who said several people came into his store wearing shorts. Yeah, we are slightly off kilter here. I had several who made comments to me today about wearing my Hawaiian shirts at minus 20 below. I told them “it’s a dry cold” but really it was colder than a witch’s ***, what was that old saying.

Have you ever been so cold that your eyelashes freeze? The wind is so cold on your face it makes your eyes water and they to freeze too? Your vision is framed by a haze of wispy frozen hair and when you wiggle your nostrils the crunch of frozen nose hair is almost tickly. It’s a fun day at work.

I don't think we've had such cold weather in quite awhile and it’s the first this winter. It was -17F this morning when I woke up at 5:15am. Although it's about minus six now, it's still "frozen nose hair" weather, along with the snow from Christmas Day. This one could stick around for awhile as the television says its here at least through the weekend. It will welcome the New Year right with all of the “Fire & Ice” activities planned around town.

Many people who live Outside do not realize we celebrate several times during the winter as during the summer months with our constant daylight there is no really good way to display a fireworks show so we save them till winter and let it fly every chance we get. Things start off with New Year, then onto Fur Rondy and the finale’ is Iditarod in March.

When it’s really cold outside with a calm wind (which sounds somewhat stupid to me as calm means no wind) in the cold, dry air your breath vapor trails behind you rising from people moving around outdoors. The vapor will remain suspended in the air for 2 to 3 minutes before fading away. Walking sometimes especially over flat surfaces during the winter the thought of becoming lost might be of no concern if you pay attention. Walking along each breath remains as a tiny, motionless mist behind at head level. I have even found such a trail still marking my way when I returned along the same path 15 minutes later. In the nearly still air, the frozen breath spread out in plumes 100 yards long.

After just seconds outdoors, nose hairs freeze rigidly and your eyes tear. Facial hair and glasses become thickly crusted with frozen breath . . . you have to be careful not to inhale too deeply through your mouth for fear of freezing or scalding one's lungs. I learned wet hair freezes at 26 degrees, snow squeaks at 12 degrees, and nose hair freezes at 8 degrees since I have lived here.

Did I mention what temperature your freezer keeps itself at? That's right: minus 28. But get yourself the cold weather gear and you can be far happier than any pea or crinkle-cut chip sitting there in the dark of that freezer.

One of the things I hear from other Alaskans is we ‘survive’ the winters to enjoy the endless summer sun, the many activities, and the time spent outdoors. We are heading back towards that light now gaining two to three seconds a day. In another week it will be 17 seconds a day and then into the minutes until June when we have about 21 hours of daylight with a semi-dusk the rest of the “night”.

When I sat down to write tonight I wanted to tell you of the beautiful sight I saw as I left the office when the last glimmer of light was fading on the horizon. As I drove I could see the faint sliver of the moon with its reflected silver light hanging just above the horizon. Venus showed brightly several inches above and to the left from my vantage point heading southwest. It would only be several more minutes before the full blackness of night covered the city as everyone drove home.

The ice fog from the vehicle’s exhaust hung in the air while waiting for the light to change and the signs showed the temperature dropping again never hitting zero for high today. Dig in as this week stays in the deep freeze and with the trees covered from the last snowfall it looks like a winter wonderland. We have many soldiers close-by so it could even be a scene from the Nutcracker being played out in real life.

Ice