Just a Little More Snow

We were supposed to get 3" to 6" of new snow a couple of days ago. We got 8", which is fairly typical for snowfall this year, i.e., more arrives than was predicted.

That puts us at somewhat over 115" of snow so far this winter. The Anchorage area set a record for getting to the 100" mark quicker than ever before. Please note that "more than 100 inches" isn't a record; not even close. We routinely go over that amount.

So the snow fell on Saturday night and Sunday morning, then redeveloped Sunday afternoon. I was planning to run the snowblower Sunday evening, but a friend offered to bring his company's snowplow over and do it for me on Monday.

Well, sure! Why not? Except he didn't show up yesterday, as promised. I don't know what's happened, but suspect that perhaps the owner of the plow had other ideas.  

So I ran the snowblower tonight after work, and got it done in fairly short order. Ah well, people are fallible and stuff happens.

Anyway, the driveway is cleared, and the berms are gone. Also, the three weeks of subzero weather is  past, and we approach normal winter temps. Kind of nice when the heat output matches the setting on the thermostats, instead of lagging well below them.

Life is good here at the ol' homestead. :)

Snapshots

Greetings, Gentle Readers!

It's a balmy 4° F. here at the ol' homestead, but kindly notice it's above zero, rather than below. That's the first time in nearly three weeks we've been this warm.

We got another six inches of snow in the last 18 hours, most of it since breakfast today. Just a couple of hours ago, visibility was down to about 30 feet.

So of course, that's when we did our weekly shopping. 

Unloading groceries

After lunch, I'll have to run the snowblower again. I hope the city sends its snowplows before then, so that clearing the road so that the berms at either end of our driveway can be done at the same time.

This fellow trotted across the road in front of us the other day, necessitating a brief delay on the way home from work. (The line across the pic is the usual broken windshield; the glass replacement people have a booming business up here.)

A friend made the drive to Girdwood a week or so ago; I stole these pics from him.

You Won't See It Coming

We've had lows of -11°every morning this week, except today. Today, it was -15°.

So to warm things up, I present a commercial from Germany. 

Monday Again?

I could have sworn we just did this, last week.

But I digress. 

Our temperature is more than 30 degrees warmer than it was on Friday. Then: -15°. Now: 16° above. 

It feels … strange. But we're cautioned not to get used to it, as temps will fall below zero again tomorrow. It's nice to have an actual winter with cold air and snow.

Anchorage had an officer-involved shooting in the neighborhood where we used to live. A black-clad man allegedly pointed a loaded crossbow at several passing cars, and then at the officers when they arrived. They responded with service weapons featuring somewhat faster projectiles. ("He brought a bolt to a bullet fight"? Naw, too clumsy.)

Speaking of cold air, our two-week stretch of subzero temps pales in comparison to Fairbanks, which is nearly always colder than we ever get. While not anywhere near a record, they've had temps in the -30 or colder range. Interested? Read about what it's like, right here.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

I resolved to take pictures of the thermometer on the drives to and from church today.
But they were the same.

Click to embiggen the pic, if needed.

The trips were at 0915 and 1230, with temps unchanged. AccuHunch guesses we'll get above zero on Thursday. Probably.

p.s. Rob (below) thought that 52 was the temp. I'll own that one, so here's a clarification:

Friday Night: -11°

That's the current temperature here at the ol' homestead. We've had a couple inches of snow, dry though it is, in the last day or two. Roads are in pretty good shape, except where the packed-down snow has been turned to ice by wear, and worn slick by stopping and starting.

I've been joking for a couple of years that intersections in the Anchorage area are groomed by Zamboni in winter-time. It's not really funny at all, and just another reason why I so rarely drive into the city anymore.

I'm happy to report that we haven't found any more "new" cracks from the 7.0 earthquake and the 8,000 or so aftershocks since then. However, although we had a couple of quiet days in mid-week, there have been a series of 3.7 to 4.7 magnitude 'quakes in the last few days. The 4.7 got our attention, because ... let's face it ... everyone is still on edge about the shaking, and wondering if we'll have any more large aftershocks.

But with every day that passes, the chance of such an occurrance grows slightly less.

In other news, there's a bit o' buzz around the Wasilla area. You remember Wasilla: the former hometown of ex-Governor Sarah Palin...  Anyhoo, Alaska's first Sonic drive-in will open there, later this year. That's probably worth driving over there to check it out, when it happens.

-10° & a Coming Cold Snap

It was 2 degrees at our house, -10 along the river, and -4 in midtown Anchorage when I got to work. Tonight, AccuHunch says it will turn cold.

 

In fact, it's supposed to be pretty crunchy on Saturday morning for the Iditarod's ceremonial start. The dogs will love it, and so will the crowds. As one old sourdough told me, our first year here, "You haven't been to the Iditarod until you've frozen your butt off."

 

There's something about standing along the race course, with a coffee pot and some breakfast burritos on the fire, as the mushers come by. You high-five the mushers, sip on your cuppa, and take another bite. By the that time, the next team is coming by.

 

 

 

But if you're going to stand alongside the track in subzero temps, you'd best dress warmly. It gets cold in wide open flats in the low part of Anchorage. :)

-27 // "What Should We Do About Guns?"

It was -19 at the house this morning, and -27 along the river. It warmed all the way up to -19 at the office in Anchorage. Globular warmering at its finest, eh?

* * * * *

And here's something you won't see everyday: a university professor telling the truth about gun control.

"As temperatures dip, lessons from Jack London's 'To Build a Fire' "

 

A local reporter has been traveling around Alaska for some time, and shares some important lessons learned. It's worth a read, especially as Arctic air blankets the state.

 

It was a trip of a lifetime, but my thoughts, upon reflection, were much like those of the man in Jack London's short story, "To Build a Fire." I was ready for a week of adventure but not the surprise fear I felt in those final few hours along the river when overcome by hypothermia ...

The difference between minus-10 cold and minus-75 cold was best described to me when I first moved to a remote village south of McGrath. "Cold is cold," one of the townspeople told me. "The difference between minus 10 and minus 50 or minus 75 is the speed at which you lose your ability to do simple tasks." 

The time you have to build a fire determines whether or not to gather ample wood to keep the fire going once it's started or build a proper base to allow for melting snow to drain away. If you are wet or alone in minus-50-degree weather, your fingers may stop working before you can strike a match. 

The lessons in "To Build a Fire" come (and are ignored) in order of importance. First, the wolf dog knows that real cold is no time for traveling. Second, an old man had told him that, after 50 below, he should travel with a companion. Third, at 75 below, the man knows he cannot fail in his first attempt to build a fire.

 

 

It's Almost Cold

My readers to the north, in the Interior, will be scoffing. "You know nothing of cold, Rev," as they watch their thermometers dip south of -40°.

Probably so, but one gets used to what one experiences. It was -14 at our home on the hillside, and -18 along the river. It's only -9 in Anchorage, here at work, but much colder to the north. AccuHunch reports -25 in Wasilla, for example, and a balmy -53 in Tanana (central Alaska, along the way to Fairbanks).

By the way, for folks Outside, Tanana doesn't rhyme with "banana." It's TAN'-a-naw. So now you know.

* * * * *

A friend on the Book o' Faces suggested I should have stayed home by the fireplace. If I thought my employer would pay me to work from home, I'd be there so fast I'd leave smoking tire tracks in the snow. But my boss has this outlandish expectation that I'll actually be in my office during working hours. Entirely unreasonable, ain't it? :)

Ah, well.

* * * * *

If memory serves, the coldest temp up here was -83 at Trapper Creek, a few years ago. There was another spot in east central AK that installed a digital thermometer, but it stopped working at -83, so they don't know if it got any colder than that.

According to the State Troopers, the greatest problem at -65 is tires breaking. Apparently the rubber seams in tires come apart when the temp goes south of -55, so tires blow out if you move your car. That's what I've been told, anyway. I'm sure that someone from the Interior will correct me if I'm wrong.

Troopers have a specially-compounded tire for that, so they've been known to pick up motorists who lose air pressure all at once. I've seen video of buses running in Fairbanks at those temps, so they must use the special* tires, too.

* * * * *

So here's the official version:

50 below recorded in Interior as cold snap settles in

Fairbanks and Anchorage woke up Wednesday to an early taste of an expected cold snap this week, as temperatures plunged to 50 degrees below zero in some areas of the Interior.

 

The National Weather Service office in Fairbanks issued special weather statements Wednesday morning for the eastern Interior and western Interior warning of similar temperatures in valleys across the region and rising to only about 20 below on hilltops or in coastal areas.

 

Morning lows for the western Interior included 47 below in Fairbanks, 49 below at Fort Wainwright, 51 below at Eielson Air Force Base and Nenana, and 54 below in Tanana. In the east, lows ranged from 44 below in Ambler and Shungnak to 45 below in Galena, 47 below in Kaltag and 51 below in McGrath, Huslia and Nikolai.

 

In Southcentral Alaska, NWS meteorologist Bob Clay said the coldest Southcentral communities Wednesday included Talkeetna at 29 below, Wasilla at 27 below and Palmer at 20 below. Temperatures in the Anchorage Bowl were as low as the minus teens; Eagle River was at about 16 below.

 

Jim Brader, a Fairbanks-based NWS meteorologist, said temperatures fell quickly as the cold snap arrived Tuesday, hitting 30 below there by afternoon and 40 below by evening. He said relatively warmer weather should prevail beginning Friday due to cloud cover being brought into the area by two storms.

 

 

* For "special", substitute "very expensive".

-14°

and life goes on. Younger Daughter's tire is fixed, and work rears its ugly head.

Back later.

Sub-zero

"Subzero" in this case refers to:

 

a. the morning temps on my drive in,

b. the forecast for the next 10 days, with lows forecast near -20, and

c. my interest in some overpaid performer expounding his or her political opinions.

 

It might be of interest to said performer(s) that we haven't voted for them, they're not running for anything, and NO ONE CARES.

 

Of course, they're all so irrevocably convinced of their own superiority and self-righteousness that they won't care if a dissenting opinion is offered.

 

So this is me, officially ignoring their bloated sense of self-worth and their ignorant, emotion-based thought process, and getting on with my life.

 

* * * * *

 

I note that the Alaska Dispatch News (the Anchorage area's larger newspaper, in a field of two) begins charging $10/month for it's on-line edition. Given its hard-left slant, and consistently liberal-to-Progressive shift, we won't miss it.

 

I also noted, in their editor's notes about it, that they're raising prices to continue subsidizing the same number of employees. No cutbacks being considered at all, it seems.

 

I'm sure we'll see how well that works out for them. Meanwhile there are other, more reliable sources of news.

 

* * * * *

 

That's about all I have for now. Y'all have a wonderful and blessed day out there. Thanks for stopping by.

It Sorta Qualifies

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped at a store on the way home from work. No, that's not remarkable. What was remarkable was that it was colder then, than it was when I left for work that morning.

-7° F. was the high for the day. And why do I keep posted the "F." after the temps? Because - invariably - I'll get either a comment or an e-mail asking if I mean "F" or "C".

To paraphrase a line from Larry Correia, "Fahrenheit is the way we roll. It's America, baby!"

But this morning it's only 0, so that's a warm-up. I'm still sorely tempted to fly up to Fairbanks in winter, just to see what real cold is like.

The coldest weather we've experienced on a continual basis was a few Januarys ago, when it got down to -27 in Anchorage, and stayed there for a couple of weeks.

Fairbanks readers, and those from the Interior (I'm lookin' at you, Griz) will laugh at that moderate cool spell. Folks in North Pole, for example, will tell me about -70.

I've experienced wind chills far colder than that*, but not actual temperatures. But I suppose a -110° wind chill qualifies as cold weather. That was the day the wind was pushing my old Bronco down the main road at 45 mph with the tranny in neutral. Old NFO and a couple of other ex-Navy types who've been on that island for any length of time are probably shivering in response, right now.

* * * * *
We're a few days late getting the remainder of the Christmas decorations down, so this morning is the time. Then we're heading out for a burger and fries at one of the local eateries (no fast food, thankyouverymuch).

Beyond that, our plans do not include the future. :)

And as you can tell, that's all I've got for now. Thanks for stopping by, friends.



*Adak, anyone? Bueller?

A Cold Day for a Walk

My beautiful wife and I have been planning a walk today. There's a nearly-exact one-mile circuit by circling the blocks to the north of us, and it's high time we started utilizing it.

We cleaned the house last weekend, and yesterday saw us clear all the snow from the stairs, walkway and driveway.

The only fly in the ointment is the temperature. It's currently 2 degrees, and AccuHunch says it will be dropping a degree per hour for most of the day, heading for -10 tonight. So it will already be below zero by the time the sun comes up. We'll decide how many layers to put on, to protect ourselves, but are determined to begin this new routine.

Besides, if we wait for "better" weather, that could well be April or May.

Meanwhile, y'all be careful out there, stay warm and safe - and thanks for dropping by.

Update: AccuHunch underestimated the temperature change. I posted this two hours ago, and it's already -2°.  Could be an interesting day.

And Now For Something Completely Different

The news is bleak and depressing, so let's do this instead:

h/t Dana

In local news, it's -3° F. with light snow this morning. For those who protest each winter when I use "snow" and "sub-zero temp" in the same sentence ... yes, it CAN snow when it's really cold. Don't tell me about how that can't happen where you are.

I'm not where you are. Here, we have our own climate, and it's different from yours. Get over it, and move on. I say this not in anger, but with some degree of exasperation. Every. Winter. Really?

Sigh ...

So.

The snowflakes get smaller, but they keep on coming down. Right now, it's like the skies are sifting a light coating of flour on everything. It's powdery, and can be blown off of the cars with a puff of air. But it's still snow.

AccuHunch promises we'll have warmer temps and snow moving in, tonight or tomorrow. Could be several inches, with temps in the 20s. After several days of this cold air, that'll feel pretty warm.

Again

-2° at the ol' homestead, and most of the way to work, too. Some low-lying clouds kept us from getting as cold as predicted, but I see some -10 and -12 readings on the east side of town. And it's dropped to -4 now, in the pre-dawn chill that begins a couple of hours before sunrise.

And that doesn't include the dense fog I drove through, part of the way here. It's always fun when the headlights frost over, mid-drive. At least with the block heater and the blast furnace under the dash, there's no problem keeping the windows clear from the get-go.

This truck was originally sold in Fairbanks, and the heater will drive you out, if you don't turn the temp cooler after a couple of miles. The Expedition had a great heater, but it took forever to get warmed up all the way. This one is much faster.

And in Alaska, a quick source of heat comes in pretty handy. :)

Hmm

It was -1° F. when we got up at 0600. As I sit here at my desk, the temp has dropped to -3. So you know what sounds good?

Pancakes.

I think we'll have cinnamon chip pancakes for breakfast. After that, maybe a run over to Cabela's. Who's with me?

:)