North Pole Weather 11/18/13

The sun will rise this morning at 9:38, and set just less than 6 hours later, at 3:33 this afternoon. If the sky should clear today (which I don’t expect) the sun might shine briefly through the trees to the south, but it certainly won’t rise above them – it’s now less than 6° above the horizon at its highest. Given next week’s forecast, the sun probably won’t touch my windows again until well into January.

Winter may be a month away officially, but that didn’t save us from two winter storms last week, with a mixture of rain and snow making the roads so slick that school was canceled. (It takes quite a bit to cancel schools in Alaska.) I considered myself lucky that the power was out here for only a few hours; the wind (unusual here in winter) took down a number of trees. Small branches sticking out of the snow were all I noticed in the yard. I don’t expect more wind (though given the direction of the jet stream it wouldn’t surprise me) but the forecast for the next week is cloudy with snow showers. And some people still don’t have power.

I didn’t dare try driving until Saturday, and kept well below the speed limits then. There’s a coating of ice on the roads that will last until it wears off – not a good start for the winter. Outdoor latches are frozen, too – I had to break some open. At least the neighbor who is kind enough to plow my driveway managed to get the storm door to close!

My hair is actually getting long enough to feel rough against the way it wants to grow. No sign it might come in curly, though.