thinking to move to alaska

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by mikeydoo21

what about kenai penninsula?

A lot milder, but you still have to do a lot of driving to buy groceries or anything you may need, including going to a clinic.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by mikeydoo21

thought of alaska because from what i hear its independent from the other states and doesnt take to much bull from the federal goverment and is less populated than other states and can do some fishing to help on grocery bill

Alaska kind of has a love/hate relationship with the feds. The fact is that Alaska's economy is very dependent on the federal government. Almost one third of our economy is federal money.

The fact that the feds own probably more than 1/3 of the land in Alaska I guess makes that kind of fair. Suffice it to say that the federal governement has an oversized presence in Alaska.

Alaskan's are independent, but also dependent on the feds.

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by mikeydoo21

thought of alaska because from what i hear its independent from the other states and doesnt take to much bull from the federal goverment and is less populated than other states and can do some fishing to help on grocery bill

Fishin' helps on the grocery bill no matter what.....

[Mollym313]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

Depending on where in Alaska you plan to move, the cold weather is a lot different than most places in the lower-48. For example, temperatures of -60 are very possible in Fairbanks and vicinity. This is bone-hurting cold. No kidding! Fairbanks and North pole are much like spread-out neighborhoods and businesses, so one has to drive quite a lot from place to place just to buy groceries and other stuff. Anchorage is different than Fairbanks in that it's more of a city, and perhaps easier for you to live. You still have to contend with the long dark hours of winter, which is nothing like the short nights in the lower-48. In here you go to work in the dark, and come home in the dark.

During the summer it's the opposite of winter. We have daylight late into the night, and can get quite hot.

How hot does it get? I'm sure it varies but I was wondering about that myself. It is 80 to 100 here from about May to sometimes early October and don't even get me started on the humidity

[superjames1992]

Originally Posted by Mollym313

How hot does it get? I'm sure it varies but I was wondering about that myself. It is 80 to 100 here from about May to sometimes early October and don't even get me started on the humidity

That really depends on where you live in Alaska.

The interior can get pretty warm. The average high for Fairbanks in July is 72 and temperatures can exceed 90 degrees. However, one must note that this is more of a dry heat than what you are used to in Missouri. The interior is not moderated by the ocean at all, so this is where the temperature extremes happen, with extremely cold temperatures in the winter and hot temperatures in the summer (Fort Yukon hit 100 degrees in 1915, Alaska's hottest temperature ever recorded and Prospect Creek reached -80 degrees in 1971).

The coastal areas down South are more moderated with more mild winter temperatures and cooler summer temperatures. For example, Fairbanks, AK sports an average high of -2 and an average low of -19 in January. Juneau, AK has an average high of 31 and an average low of 21. That's quite a difference. Juneau is cooler in the summer, though, with an average high of 64 in July.

Anchorage is farther north than Juneau, so it is colder, but still nothing like Fairbanks as it is still quite moderated by the Pacific Ocean. In January, Anchorage reaches and average high of 22 and an average low of 9 (Still a lot better than Fairbanks' -2/-19, but colder than Juneau's 31/21). In July, Anchorage's average temperature is 65 degrees.

Temperatures vary widely over Alaska due to its immense size.

The bottom line is that the summer is relatively short and it is nothing like what you experience in Missouri.

[Mollym313]

My feelings would not be hurt with a milder summer at all. I am probably most interested in the Juneau and Fairbanks area.

[akck]

Originally Posted by Mollym313

My feelings would not be hurt with a milder summer at all. I am probably most interested in the Juneau and Fairbanks area.

Another thing to be aware of is that Juneau gets a lot more rain than Fairbanks. That said, we're had one of the nicest summers in Juneau with high temps (70s & 80s at the peak), and relatively dry. Compare this to the last two summers where we never dried out and were occasionally lucky to see temps in the 60s.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Mollym313

How hot does it get? I'm sure it varies but I was wondering about that myself. It is 80 to 100 here from about May to sometimes early October and don't even get me started on the humidity

Around Fairbanks, some summers 80 or 90 degrees is common, and that's the case this summer. It has been reaching 80 during the day, and then dropping to 45-50 degrees during the night. But every now and then we get summers where it seems that the rain doesn't stop, which makes for cool days of perhaps 40-50 degrees.

Quite often it snows any time from mid September to the end of October or so. The snow melts sometime from mid April to mid May. This year we had ice and snow packs off the Richardson Highway, near Summit Lake through mid July. I haven't driven that far for a couple of weeks, but two weeks ago there was still a good layer of ice on the gravel bars of the Delta River near Summit Lake.

Also, I forgot to mention that quite often (on dry summers like this one), we have a lot of wildfires in the interior of Alaska (all around Fairbanks). The fires are so large and intense that sometimes visibility on the roads is reduced to perhaps one-half mile or less. To get an idea of what I am talking about, look in this forum for a thread titled "Lots of wildfires this summer." Automobiles parked outside are covered with ashes from the wildfires.