Y'all crack me up! (Anchorage, Fairbanks: humidity, fishing, close to)

[nwcountrygal]

Haha Grannysroost! At first I was wondering hot flash?? also. Snow blowing and flip flops - not for me!! Tried to rep you but have to spread love around! Sheezz

[Isaysos]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

Most places in the Interior don't get much wind, but there are some exceptions to that such as Delta Junction. Absent wind, temperatures from about +10 to -15 are just plain nice! Any warmer and moisture is a problem. At somewhere around -20 things start to be a problem. For many things -20 or even -25 isn't very significant. At about -30, it's a problem, and if you don't know what you are doing it can get really miserable. At -40 it starts to get dangerous. At -60 you'd better be an expert if you want to go places and do things. At -70... stay home.

Windy places change that a little, but not much. You may have seen all those beautiful parka hoods that people here on the North Slope have? Folks in Fairbanks don't need 'em! It gets lots colder in Fairbanks than it does here, but if it's -30 in Fairbanks it will be calm and here it might be blowing 30 mph (we think that 10 mph is almost a dead calm). Hence everyone here has clothes with a hood, even in the summer.

But if you go running around on a snowmachine or a 4-wheeler you'll need to deal with just as much wind as we do.

It's all relative, and you will get aclimated to wherever you are for awhile. Here in Barrow anyone who has been here awhile is comfortable with a nice warm 45 degree day, and doesn't mind 50. At 60 we suffer. A couple days of 70 and the hospital and EMS crews will be overloaded with old people having heat problems. Our record high is 79 degrees. (And it hit 60 yesterday!)

I have lived in southern Minnesota most of my life and am still not aclimated to them When it gets colder than 20F I still feel like im going to die when I go outside (which is most of January)! There is always a week in Jan where it will get below zero all day and I go outside to go to my car to work and thats it.
Also, If you go to weather.com and type in Barrow, AK. Click on the montly temp. it says it reache 122F on August 1st! Now either thats a typo or the hottest day on record up there.

[Magnum Mike]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

Most places in the Interior don't get much wind, but there are some exceptions to that such as Delta Junction. Absent wind, temperatures from about +10 to -15 are just plain nice! Any warmer and moisture is a problem. At somewhere around -20 things start to be a problem. For many things -20 or even -25 isn't very significant. At about -30, it's a problem, and if you don't know what you are doing it can get really miserable. At -40 it starts to get dangerous. At -60 you'd better be an expert if you want to go places and do things. At -70... stay home.

Windy places change that a little, but not much. You may have seen all those beautiful parka hoods that people here on the North Slope have? Folks in Fairbanks don't need 'em! It gets lots colder in Fairbanks than it does here, but if it's -30 in Fairbanks it will be calm and here it might be blowing 30 mph (we think that 10 mph is almost a dead calm). Hence everyone here has clothes with a hood, even in the summer.

But if you go running around on a snowmachine or a 4-wheeler you'll need to deal with just as much wind as we do.

It's all relative, and you will get aclimated to wherever you are for awhile. Here in Barrow anyone who has been here awhile is comfortable with a nice warm 45 degree day, and doesn't mind 50. At 60 we suffer. A couple days of 70 and the hospital and EMS crews will be overloaded with old people having heat problems. Our record high is 79 degrees. (And it hit 60 yesterday!)

LOL.. Well, from one extreme to the other - Floyd, come down to Phoenix in July sometime, where we get highs of 110 degrees.. But it's a dry heat, no humidity - and every place is air-conditioned.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Magnum Mike

LOL.. Well, from one extreme to the other - Floyd, come down to Phoenix in July sometime, where we get highs of 110 degrees.. But it's a dry heat, no humidity - and every place is air-conditioned.

I lived in Tucson as a teenager. I've seen 116 degrees in Yuma. And I've watched tourist literally dropped by walking only 10 feet from an air conditioned car...

Just as I said about becoming aclimated to the cool temps of the Arctic, the same is true of the heat of a southwestern desert. It takes people a couple of years to get used to it (and to learn that a drink of water is required if you even think about walking either way through a door!).

There is one really significant difference between living in a very hot climate and in a very cold climate. In your desert if a person becomes lost or injured the basic trick to survival is to sit down in the best shade possible and do nothing, because doing nothing is safe. In my desert (we get about half the precipitation that Phoenix does) under the same conditions doing nothing will likely be fatal. Here you have to know the right things to do to stay alive.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Isaysos

I have lived in southern Minnesota most of my life and am still not aclimated to them When it gets colder than 20F I still feel like im going to die when I go outside (which is most of January)! There is always a week in Jan where it will get below zero all day and I go outside to go to my car to work and thats it.
Also, If you go to weather.com and type in Barrow, AK. Click on the montly temp. it says it reache 122F on August 1st! Now either thats a typo or the hottest day on record up there.

The actual record high temperature here is 79F, recorded in the early 90's (1994 I think).

Barrow has the lowest average temperature of any place in Alaska. But it is rarely ever the coldest place on any given date.

Our temperatures are greatly moderated by the fact that we have water on three sides (and the prevailing winds are from the east, straight off the Beafort Sea). Being this far north means that with the ocean moderating the weather, we never get warm. We do get relatively cold (the record is -59F), but unlike the Interior that is rare and never lasts long.

[Nephler]

Your prevailing winds are from the east? Not the west Floyd, just wondering and find that interesting.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Nephler

Your prevailing winds are from the east? Not the west Floyd, just wondering and find that interesting.

For the past year or so there have been a lot more west winds than we used to get... and a lot more snow too.

[Grannysroost]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

I lived in Tucson as a teenager. I've seen 116 degrees in Yuma. And I've watched tourist literally dropped by walking only 10 feet from an air conditioned car...

Just as I said about becoming aclimated to the cool temps of the Arctic, the same is true of the heat of a southwestern desert. It takes people a couple of years to get used to it (and to learn that a drink of water is required if you even think about walking either way through a door!).

There is one really significant difference between living in a very hot climate and in a very cold climate. In your desert if a person becomes lost or injured the basic trick to survival is to sit down in the best shade possible and do nothing, because doing nothing is safe. In my desert (we get about half the precipitation that Phoenix does) under the same conditions doing nothing will likely be fatal. Here you have to know the right things to do to stay alive.

Floyd, never new you came from AZ...this is a big change from AK for sure (we are now in Casa Grande, 1/2 way between Phoenix and Tucson... I looked at the weather today for the peninsula and was mid 50's high, lows 30's, here over 100 for sure, lows maybe high 70s...don't move too fast and lots of water soldier for sure...

PS...how are the other peops up there...the nurse and her hubby, and Brian?

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Grannysroost

Floyd, never new you came from AZ...this is a big change from AK for sure (we are now in Casa Grande, 1/2 way between Phoenix and Tucson... I looked at the weather today for the peninsula and was mid 50's high, lows 30's, here over 100 for sure, lows maybe high 70s...don't move too fast and lots of water soldier for sure...

PS...how are the other peops up there...the nurse and her hubby, and Brian?

Living in AZ taught me a couple of things. One was that I wanted to see more seasonal changes rather than just warm and hot. The other was that I like dry places where it doesn't rain. Barrow is a great place in those respects!

I haven't seen much of the nurse. She and hubby were doing fine last I knew, but the hospital culture seems to have swallowed them up and is keeping them busy.

I see Brian on a daily basis. That guy is having just entirely too much fun! He says he's going to leave sometime soon though, but might be back or might not be, I'm not sure. If he leaves I sure hope he does come back, because he's just a real pleasure to have around.

[AttilaTheHunny]

I appreciate all of your comments! Very helpful to get some feedback from people who've been there or are there. We've done a lot of weather comparison... but as a frequent visitor to the south, I know that just reading temps doesn't necessarily tell you how it FEELS. I've spent a week in July in El Paso, and felt it was HOTTER up in Green Bay when I returned. Yet, it was 120 down there, and only 90 here.. but with 100% humidity. Again, thanks for the input!
-Kristen