COLD. It has oficially become cold here in Kotzebue. None of that namby pamby -20 stuff. No, it's -33F. That's -36c for those of you not cool enough to live in one of the two countries left in the world that are still using fahrenheit. Yeah I know....it gets colder. There are places in Alaska right now that are colder. It's
-54F in Galena, -52F at Chandalar Lake,
-43F in Selawik. I have spent a week at
-56F in the Noatak valley a few years ago. In my opinion, once you pass -30 it's all just cold. You freeze so fast it doesn't really matter if it's -30 or -50. Cold is cold.
Right now we are,
* 58 degrees colder than Winnipeg, Manitoba.
* 61 degrees colder than Gilford, New Hampshire
* 65 degrees colder than Belfast, New York
* 68 degrees colder than Minneapolis, Minesota
* 80 degrees colder than Salt Lake City, Utah
* 94 degrees colder than Las Vegas, Nevada
* 104 degrees colder than Austin, Texas
When it gets this cold we get ice fog. Because I'm too lazy and inarticulate to explain it myself I am going to link http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF13/1319.html. Ned Rozell wrote this article and it is very interesting even though it's mainly about Fairbanks.
Ice fog is what happens when the air becomes so cold it can no longer hold water. There is a lot of water vapor in any kind of combustion exhaust such as from furnaces or tailpipes on cars....that's where most of the ice fog comes from.
These photos were taken at around 1:30pm. Sunrise was at 1:56pm and sunset was at 2:35pm. Tomorrow is the shortest day of the year....WOO HOO! The days will start getting longer. Right now all we have about 4 hours of twilight a day ...
....with the moon on one side of town.....
....and the sun peeking out on the other.
1 comment:
Does the lack of light in the winter affect your mood? I'm not sure I could live in Alaska in the winter.
Have you ever read Robert Service's poem The Cremation of Sam McGee?
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