Winter Conditions in North Pole, Alaska (Fairbanks: home, depreciation, schools)

[KayDee The Curious]

My stepson and his wife moved to Ak on the 10th of August, this year Neither have ever been to Alaska, nor have they researched anything about it.

I would really like to know what is the "normal" weather conditions for that area in the winter? Could anyone tell me about the road conditions, the tempature, the light or dark conditions during this time of year. Anything would be helpful.

Thank you,

KayDee

[Out of Alaska]

You can look up Fairbanks on weather.com, and then subtract 10-20 degrees in the winter. North Pole is just south of FAI but because of the geography of the area, is colder. We get ice fog between North Pole and Fairbanks semi-regularly, but lots of people still commute (it's 20 min on a normal day). Sunlight and all of that is on weather.com, but the worst is aboutr 20 hrs of 'non sun', the best is 20 hrs of sun!

[Ken G. Brown]

They will get used to the -40 degree temperatures in winter. They'll have to get an oil pan heater installed in their car, so they can plug it in at home and at shopping centers that have plugs installed in the parking lots.

It is easier and safer to drive on very cold, frozen roads than on warm, thawing roads. The schools only close at +30 degrees, when it's very slippery, not at -40.

The four hours of sunlight in winter is offset by the 20 hours of sunlight in summer.

[940]

Just wondering if there's a noticeable depreciation of daylight/sunlight happening now that it's September, or is it more obvious later into October?

[Arcticthaw]

Originally Posted by 940

Just wondering if there's a noticeable depreciation of daylight/sunlight happening now that it's September, or is it more obvious later into October?

I have noticed the last couple of weeks that I get to see the sun rise as I get up and then on the way to work. Around 6 to 6:30. It is also getting darker around a half hour earlier too. Last week there was still sunlight at this time, now we have dusk, and with the cloud cover its looking fairly dark. We just experienced a full moon, and when I was on the river this weekend it really didn't get dark till almost midnight, mainly because of the moonlight.

[Rance]

Hannah and I were just there a week ago. It was very nice weather. Although she is playing it to be cold! We drove until 10 or 11 pm when it was getting dark...but it was plenty light at 7 am to start again. This picture was taken at 8:00 PM and you can see it's plenty light out.