Aurora borealis

[Arcticthaw]

Well you will just have to make a early March road trip north to experience such a sight and sound. :0

[Xa'at]

Oh I've seen auroras before. Very beautiful. I wish I had taken pictures...

[FauteDeMieux]

My girlfriend and I are considering a drive up to Deadhorse on the Dalton highway (road?) when we roadtrip to AK around August - might our chances of seeing the lights increase above the arctic circle and up towards the arctic ocean, in spite of it being the middle of the 'off-season' ?

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by warptman

(yelling) HEY DUSTY, THEY MAKE NOISE LIKE RICE CRISPY TREATS! My ears ring constantly, too. I can still hear high pitch things though. Don't know how long that'll last though.

It really does have an upside, when the rest of the audience squirms and puts their hands over their ears at the "feedback" from a microphone, I don't hear that either. Of course, suspicious nature that she has, my wife claims I have selective hearing, I normally respond with a "What?"

[Glitch]

Originally Posted by FauteDeMieux

My girlfriend and I are considering a drive up to Deadhorse on the Dalton highway (road?) when we roadtrip to AK around August - might our chances of seeing the lights increase above the arctic circle and up towards the arctic ocean, in spite of it being the middle of the 'off-season' ?

No. Above the Arctic Circle the sun does not set from May 10 through August 2, and there is no chance of seeing the northernlights during the day. Even by the end of August there will still be around 18 hours of daylight, and the 6 hours of "night" will not be dark enough to see any northernlight activity.

[Rance]

I drove up the haul road this last August. Clear skies everyday/night. We never saw any. You will see some scenery that will take your mind completely off the northern lights so don't worry about that.

They do sort of sound like rice crispies crackling. Or like the ice in the bay that has calved off a glacier.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Rance

I drove up the haul road this last August. Clear skies everyday/night. We never saw any. You will see some scenery that will take your mind completely off the northern lights so don't worry about that.

They do sort of sound like rice crispies crackling. Or like the ice in the bay that has calved off a glacier.

Yup, rice crispies, that is indeed another way to describe it! And yes!!! I remember well our tour of the fjords, couldn't tell for sure if it was just my ears doing their thing or the sound of a glacier calving, well.....not the calving part, that tends to be more of a splash, but the sound of whatever it is in the ice crackling, (air pockets?) (fault lines?) (gremlins?)

[FauteDeMieux]

Thanks Glitch and Rance. Will have to save that for another trip, I guess!

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by warptman

(yelling) HEY DUSTY, THEY MAKE NOISE LIKE RICE CRISPY TREATS! My ears ring constantly, too. I can still hear high pitch things though. Don't know how long that'll last though.

OOOH, no need to yell, ya might wake up the dogs, then, they yell back, as they say in Spanish "Mucho Racket!!"
(Well.... that may not be an exact quote from the Spanish) but ya get da picture.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

I've never heard the Northern Lights, so I wouldn't know what it sounds like. But from descriptions, it doesn't sound like a high pitched noise...

Wow, I can get both auditory and visual imagery here, winter, night, standing on a hilltop in 2 feet of snow listening to Aurora crackle against the background sound of a symphony of Crickets, watching the lights dance across the sky. Now, if my dogs could just howl in key....