North Pole Weather 1/27/14

The days are getting longer – 6 hours and 25 minutes today. Sunrise this morning will be 9:52 in the morning, and it won’t set until 4:17 this afternoon. Add to that that it’s high enough in the sky (7° now) that only clouds prevent sunshine on my walls. That doesn’t mean that we expect warm weather – the average temperature here at the end of January is the coldest of the year. Usually.

Would you believe our high temperatures hit freezing last Tuesday and they’ve been at or above freezing every day through Friday? when the official high only reached +30°F? That it actually rained Thursday (practically closing down the Fairbanks area) and reached 45°F Friday? It hit 30 (officially) on Saturday, Sunday a truck on the highway was spraying water on my windshield, and we could reach above-freezing temperatures again today.

The jet stream is still the culprit both for our warmth (it’s blowing from Hawaii to the north over Alaska, locally known as the pineapple express) and for the cold as it turns south from the Arctic Ocean over the central and eastern states.

The air aloft here is actually much warmer than the surface temperatures would suggest. In windy areas such as McKinley Park and Delta, the temperatures are in the 40’s. Here it is cold at the surface due to radiation to space, and the winds are confined to higher elevation. This also means very poor mixing of pollutants. Have a look at the video* at around 14 minutes. That freezing level map implies a really warm bubble of air over our heads. (In case you’re wondering, I’m just south of the comma in the 8,000 feet near the border with Canada.)

*The video of the Sunday night weather program finally was posted around noon.

Meanwhile, here’s the map of freezing level heights.The red lines, showing the height of the top of freezing air, are normally entirely south of mainland Alaska this time of year.

North Pole Weather 1/20/14

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.

Tonight’s weather report

I hope it doesn’t really get above freezing tomorrow. We don’t need ice on the roads!

This video is very much an experiment, by the way, and I suspect few of you will want to watch more than a few minutes of a half hour weather program! But in case you want a view of how much weather varies across our state, I am going to try putting the Sunday evening weather forecast program on my Monday “North Pole Weather” blogs. Let me know what you think.

North Pole Weather 1/13/14

As warm as it got yesterday.

The sun will rise this morning at 10:33, and set 4 hours and 58 minutes later at 3:26 this afternoon. At 4° above the horizon the sun is occasionally visible through the trees from my window. It cooled off quite a bit last weekend, though – the electronic thermometer was stuck on LL (below -40) all day Sunday. And that’s temperature, not wind chill. Serves me right for commenting on how it’s often warm here when it’s cold in the Eastern half of the US.

Fairbanks airport, near noon last Tuesday

It’s supposed to cloud over today, which should warm things up. I certainly hope so. My critique group met yesterday afternoon, but I just couldn’t see driving in through the ice fog. It’s so bad downwind, or rather down-drift, of the army power plant that there are warning signs on the highway. I just didn’t want to take the risk.

I flew down to Anchorage to see the cancer surgeon Tuesday, and everything looks great. Apparently the blood marker is going to work fine for me. And the seed catalogs are starting to arrive! Can it be long until spring?

P.S. The 9:15 am temperature is up to -33°F, so maybe I can get in a badly-needed trip for groceries today.

North Pole Weather, 12/6/14

The sun will rise at 10:46 this morning and set 4 hours 22 minutes later, at 3:08 pm. We’re now gaining almost 4 ½ minutes a day, and it will be 5 before the end of the week. Should have no problem getting home after my dentist appointment today, unless that freezing rain materializes.

It’s been snowing a little but not particularly cold and not raining, thank goodness. I was worried for a bit when I saw the weather forecast Saturday, which put us in an area of mixed rain and snow, but it’s not that warm – forecast high today around 20°F. That’s a very pleasant day for Interior Alaska at this time of year.

Forecast Sunday night for today’s jet stream. (Source)

Wondering why we have it so warm while the news is all about cold? Well, that cold air over the central and eastern states is being dumped out of the Arctic. Something has to replace it, and we’re getting the warm air heading back north over us. Since we have the Alaska Range to our south, most of the moisture yesterday fell on the south side of the range. We had only a few sprinkles of snow. Today looks wetter to me, as the local direction of the jet stream is parallel to the valleys. In fact, this morning’s weather forecast on the radio mentioned light freezing rain as a possibility. I just hope the weather lets me fly to Anchorage tomorrow – it’s on the south side of the range!

North Pole Weather 12/30/13

Ice fog in the Safeway parking lot.

The days are getting longer again, and perceptibly. The sun will rise at 10:56 this morning, and set 3 hours and 55 minutes later at 2:51 this afternoon. Tomorrow will be a whole 3 minutes longer than today, and the noon elevation of the sun is now increasing by about a tenth of a degree per day. It’s still getting colder, simply because the northern hemisphere takes time to cool. Our coldest weather, on average, is in January.

Distance from the sun has nothing to do with this. In fact our closest approach to the sun will be this coming Friday, when the earth is only 91,413,000 miles from the sun. We won’t be at our most distant, 94,510,000 miles, until early July. Seasons are all in the tilt of the earth’s axis toward and away from the sun.

The road home. There is a traffic light just beyond the cars, but it’s not visible through the ice fog.

It’s finally turned cold even by Alaska standards. My electronic thermometer was stuck on LL (somewhere below 40 below) for several days around Christmas, and the dial thermometer reached close to 50 below. Officially, the temperature at the airport broke 40 below the day after Christmas, and ice fog was too dense to risk driving into town last Friday.

The road between North Pole and Fairbanks is a divided expressway, but it runs right by an Army base with a notorious power pant. The cooling pond is such a producer of ice fog that there are warning signs for low visibility, and servicemen recently rotated in from warmer climates sometimes take the 55 mph speed limit seriously, even when tail lights are invisible at ten feet. There have been several deaths due to collisions on this stretch of highway, and I went to the Safeway in North Pole for some desperately needed food. I didn’t miss the ice fog completely, but it was better in North Pole (which is where I took the photos) than on the Richardson Highway.

I’m glad to say it clouded over and gave us (relative) warmth over the weekend, though we haven’t gotten up to zero where I live. The forecast is for above zero even in the low areas New Year’s Day, though, so we can hope.

North Pole Weather 12/23/13

The sun will rise at 10:59 this morning, and set 3 hours 42 minutes later, at 2:41 this afternoon. The days are getting longer, but only by about half a minute since the solstice, nor is the maximum height of the sun much more than 2°. That will begin to change with increasing rapidity. By Christmas the day will be 2 minutes longer than today.

We’ve had a little more snow; the snow stake in the yard indicated around 18” in the brief period of daylight yesterday, and it’s still snowing lightly. The forecast was for more snow, so I could have more by the time it’s light enough to see. Note that only half of the stake now shows. (Update 10:45: the snow depth is now 21″.)

The temperatures are not extreme by Alaskan standards: generally below zero, but nowhere near forty below. I can live with that, especially since I now have a heated garage.

And I’m actually beginning to look (and feel) as if I have hair again.

North Pole Weather 12/9/13

The sun will “rise” this morning at 10:39, and set barely 4 hours later at 2:45 this afternoon. The short days of winter are definitely here, with the sun getting only 5 times its own diameter above the southern horizon at noon.

We’re still getting winter storms. Not cold and snow, we’ve had a huge slug of warm, wet air aloft that has given us a few more sprinkles of freezing rain! But the air near the ground is still below freezing, so the result is mostly slippery roads. The depth of the snow pack has actually decreased over the last couple of days though the water content has increased, and we’re now below a foot of snow on the ground.

I’m very glad I was able to trade tickets for The Nutcracker Ballet and the Christmas symphony concert for transportation to both. I have a medical appointment (cancer doctor) near noon later this week, but aside from that and can’t-put-it-off shopping (which I try to get done on the same trips as medical appointments) I’m staying home and writing or watching Christmas DVD’s while riding the stationary bike. I watched 3 versions of The Nutcracker last week in preparation for the live ballet, and have to say that the live performance held up well. I hope to finish The Hogfather today. I’m happy to say I’m back to 2 hours or more of exercise a day, even if my balance is still shaky.

The upper left photo, by the way, was taken out of my south window with maximum optical zoom shortly after sunrise Sunday.The one on the lower right was taken by the University photographer, Todd Paris, at the Christmas concert. What did I ask for? Hair and a clear health check on the pesky cancer!

P.S. We had another 3″ of wet snow after dark Sunday night, so when it got light enough to see the snow stake, it was back at 14″ again, with the temperature up to 30° F which is ridiculously warm for this time of year. Far too slippery to drive unnecessarily.

North Pole Weather 12/2/13

The sun will rise at 10:23 this morning, and set 4 hours and 34 minutes later at 2:57 this afternoon. The roads are still treacherous, and probably will stay that way for a good part of the winter, and the temperatures last weekend were well below zero. We did get a little more snow, and now have more than a foot on the ground. It’s cleared off now, though, and that means cold! The ground radiates heat upward, and with no clouds most of the heat goes straight out to space.

It’s reached the point where if I want to go shopping I must leave the house by sunrise and then go to no more than a couple of stores so I can start home no later than 2pm. Almost didn’t get home before dark Saturday.

Ravens are tricksters and gods in Native legends. There’s nothing uncommon about ravens up here, winter or summer, but I most often see them at road kill or dumpsters. Friday one was sitting in one of my trees, no doubt hoping to see something he could scavenge!

I’ll finish with this week’s picture of how my hair is growing back after chemo.

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.