Playing Out

Today was a beautiful day. The temp was -18F, the wind was 3-6mph from the north and the windchill about -28F.


Uyaana decided that he wanted to play out. He hasn't played out for weeks because it has been so cold out.



There are lots of snow drifts to climb on.



That snow drift reaches halfway up our neighbor's house......good for sliding.









Kaija was having fun outside too.



Maybe she smells little mouse trails under the snow.



She didn't find any.






You getting cold yet?



Just a little longer.



Time to warm up.

Friday already. It seems like the week flew right by. That is unusual for me. Usually it seems to drag. Maybe it's because it is getting bright out again these days. On the way to the post office today I had to use the sunvisor in the car! Woo Hoo. It's cold again though. Oh well. I might take a ride with the snowmachine tomorrow cold or not...looks like it is supposed to be a sunny day. Here's what our sunrise and sunset data looks like for those who are interested....


As you can see the length of visible light is longer and gaining by about 8 minutes a day. The angle of the sun is higher in the sky. Civil Twilight is our length of visible light...when it starts to get light out in the morning and when it gets dark out in the evening. It's nice to leave work and have it still be light out.



I took a couple photos after work as the sun was starting to set.



It was getting colder and wer were starting to get some ice fog. I'll try to get out for a bit tomorrow and take some pictures.

Frosty Dog

Bone Chilling, Mind Numbing.....

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.