The sun will rise this morning at 10:12 and set almost 5 hours 40 minutes later at 3:52 this afternoon. Day length is increasing fast now, by more than 6 minutes a day, and by the end of the week we’ll be past 6 hours with the sun above the horizon. Not very far above it. We’ll make 5.3° at solar noon today (1:02 pm local time) but the sun’ s getting higher by about a fifth of a degree a day.
We seem to be having another of those winters with wide swings in temperature. Last weekend I stayed home to avoid 40 below temperatures. Two days ago I was worrying about freezing rain (slick roads.) Today’s highs are supposed to be in the 20’s (above) with decreasing clouds. But if you’re really interested, the weather forecast as of last night is below. (Remember how big Alaska is!) These YouTube videos of my favorite weather program are experimental; let me know how you like them.
The jet stream’s wandering, or more exactly it’s a high-amplitude pattern, with warm Pacific air traveling northward over central Alaska, then turning back south from the Arctic Ocean to slam into the central and eastern states. Polar vortex? There’s always a polar vortex, but it usually stays more or less over the Arctic Ocean, where it belongs.
P.S. The news just announced that the Kuskokwim 300 sled dog race (Southwest mainland) was so warm there was water on the river ice and bare tundra in places.
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That was interesting, Sue Ann. Oh my, what a job a meteorologist in Alaska has. I never gave much thought to what a big area they are forecasting. Looks like you have a sizable storm system hovering. We are having a below average cold winter here.
There are three offices, Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage, who among them cover the whole state. Fairbanks office covers everything north of the Alaska Range. The head office, and the one that gives the evening weather, is in Anchorage. They tend to overpredict precipitation in Fairbanks, so I combine their forecasts and maps with my own knowledge of where the precipitation shadows are. Also check the Fairbanks office website at http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/ We’re still hampered by the wide spacing of observations up here. Thank goodness for satellites!