North Pole Christmas Eve

Well, not the North Pole.

I live in North Pole, Alaska, which is a suburb of Fairbanks. It’s a little colder than Fairbanks (lower-lying) and needless to say, given its name, tends to be busy around Christmas. Especially Santa Claus House, a tourist emporium which also features letters from Santa, and a mini-ice carnival. Local businesses here, as in Fairbanks, often have ice sculptures in front during the winter.

Since it’s Christmas Eve, I thought I’d let you see some pictures taken in both Fairbanks and North Pole during the last few days.

Looking across the Chena River toward Fairbanks

Display at the Fairbanks North Star Borough building.

The light poles in North Pole are candy canes year round.

Santa Claus is a recurring theme. I'm afraid the sky is typical for warm winter weather.

Ice sculpture at the ice park entrance. These will last most of the winter up here.

Rapumzel and her rescuer in front of a local dentist's office.

North Pole Weather

Snow stake around noon, November 22, 2010

I live in North Pole. Not at the North Pole, but a suburb of Fairbanks, Alaska. This time of year it’s normally dark except for a few hours around noon, and reliably below freezing.

Not this year.

It’s not only above freezing, it’s raining, and expected to keep raining through tomorrow. Of course the ground is well cold-soaked, and there are ten inches of snow on the ground, so the roads are–to put it mildly–treacherous. Like people can’t stand up, let alone cars. My paved patio has about a quarter inch of clear, wet ice. Schools are closed. A friend’s dog couldn’t stand up.

Of course it won’t get warm enough to melt anything, so we’ll have ice on the roads until it wears off (takes several weeks on the heavily traveled roads, until spring on the side roads.)

Living as I do on a gravel road, with gravel large enough to poke through most ice, I thought I could drive the tenth of a mile to the mailbox and at least check my mail. Ha! The car, an all-wheel drive with Blizzak tires, felt like it was floating all the way, and when I touched the brakes, the anti-lock system engaged at once (without slowing the car.) I didn’t even try the paved road.

I surely hope it cools off by Wednesday.