how cold DOES it get? (Anchorage, Sitka and: relocating, military, work)

[AKMammabear]

Originally Posted by BudinAk

...We don't do much swimming in the ocean here...

CHICKEN!

[rotorhead]

When you live in AK, sunshine in winter is some precious stuff, don't ever want to waste it. Of course the folks in Barrow are probably rolling their eyes about now.

Heres another winter shot from scenic Homer, taken about noon as I recall. Everything looks pretty much the same after the snow falls.

[veruzaj]

Hey AKMama bear, you go swimming much???
How long can you last? Don't give anyone an impression of daring to swim in these waters. A very good friend of mine fell off his boat and died within 10 minutes, and that is stretching the time.....

[james203]

i dont uderstand why anyone would live in such a cold climate.

[Rance]

Because it's awesome!

[AKMammabear]

And the people are friendly, and it is the best place to live!

[irisemer]

I do like winter and winter landscapes

[hinna]

I live in wasilla, just 40 miles of Anchorage. The coldest we got this winter was -22F or so. Not too bad and the cold fronts like that usually don't last very long anyway. we just get lots of snow most of the time. I heard of Fairbanks though. Today it is 58 F, not bad. Oh, and the summers are awesome!!!

[guvjim]

Originally Posted by dyscti

Well on the summit of Denali it can get down to 100 below zero with the windchill. But I guess mountains don't really count.

The coldest it got this year in Fairbanks was 44 below zero. Last winter it hit 51 below.

It doesn't seem to get much colder than 60 below anywhere in the state (that has a thermometer) anymore, so I would say that's about as cold as it gets. But with windchill it can obviously go lower than that.

These students are joining the 40 below club at my school.

I remember (I guess, because I had never seen that sort of extreme temperatures) when I first got to Fairbanks in November of 1955 it was -55.
Then I went to Galena, where I was in air traffic control, and we recorded temperatures of -75. That was a long time ago, and I haven't seen temperatures like that posted for a long time. all of our buildings were joined together with corridors, which were un heated and the ice would form so thick in them that two people couldn't walk side by side. Our paint shack located away from the building which held our paint (if we wanted to paint our room) and the walls on it were 6 feet thick. I notice that it doesn't get as cold as it used to. But it's still mighty cold.

[kris k]

Hi;

I have seen the teperature plummet to -71 twice: Once in Ft yukon in 1982, and once in Two Rivers in '89. We really don't make a big deal about low temps here in the Interior; in fact schools never close due to intense cold.

Wierd things do happen at 40 below: Machinery breaks down, heating oil freezes in the line, septic tanks quit working,etc. Throw a cup of hot water in the air and it turns into a cloud(kids love this).

In short, cold is a necessary part of the ecology. Without cold the permafrost would melt and our roads (what few we have) would sink into the ground and houses would tilt to the side the heater is on. Life is interesting here in the Interior. IN the dead of winter, when there is little daylight, folks seem to be more helpful and friendly. Kris K