A not so... wordless Wednesday... Day Three

Well, we're in day three of a projected ten day cold snap. Lovely. It seems every time I tune into the National Weather Service they are predicting colder temperatures. For new Alaskans this stuff is starting to lose it's charm. The first day it's like "Wow, this is cool" but by day three most cheechakos are starting to think their plan of living in the Last Frontier might not have been such a hot idea, pardon the pun.

A client with a background in meteorology sent me the following note in an email yesterday...

ANOTHER WEAK LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO RETROGRADE OUT OF THE HIGH CANADIAN ARCTIC AND INTO NORTHWESTERN ALASKA EARLY THIS WEEKEND....PLUNGING TEMPERATURES EVEN FURTHER IN CLEAR AREAS OF THE CENTRAL AND EASTERN INTERIOR... VALLEY TEMPERATURES COULD DROP BELOW 65 BELOW IN SOME CLEAR SPOTS THIS WEEKEND.

This isn't my first time around the arctic rodeo. I've stood on the Yukon River, hundreds of miles from the nearest human, and watched the wind howl like the devil himself at -80. While I do like to joke about the dropping temps, this weather is certainly no joking matter. This morning it was -48 in Fairbanks and North Pole and apparently it's only going to get colder. This is life threatening cold, folks.

Think of it this way... at -45, the air outside is 143.6 degrees colder than your core body temperature.

My best advice? Stay home and don't venture out unless you absolutely have to. If you do have to go out, make sure to wear your best winter gear... keep every body part your fond of covered (children need extra protection in this weather)... make sure your cell phone is charged and with you... keep your fuel tanks full... and if you have pets, make them wear their little booties and a sweater when they go outside (yes, I know they will probably hate it).

This is the view that greeted me at about Noon yesterday. The sun was trying to come up but just wasn't there yet.

This is at about 12:45 and unfortunately this is about as high as it gets in Alaska in the winter. Two hours later it was gone.

This is ice fog... you would never know from this picture that the tallest building in Fairbanks, Alaska is just behind the building to the left. Amazing, isn't it?