Trivia, anyone?

Okay, here goes... this page was done in 1999

Since I am in Fairbanks, I cannot really speak for the rest of Alaska, and I have seen enough of it, and hear enough about it from newspaper and television, to know that the weather, conditions, and situations vary a great deal. So, this trivia is (mostly) about the Fairbanks area, and is from observations I have made in the year or so that I have lived here.

Winter Temperatures
Fairbanks is in the interior of Alaska, and is pretty much smack-dab in the middle of the state. What that means is the temperature fluctuates a lot. The Interior traditionally gets warmer in the summer, and colder in the winter, than most other areas.

Taken in January of 2000, this photo shows the city of Fairbanks shrouded in ice fog. Smokestacks of the local power plant, supplying steam for heat for the city rise above the ice fog in this photo. The photo appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper. At the News Miner's web site you can look at photo archives for more local photos, and a web cam that will give you a current photo of downtown Fairbanks.

Last winter I believe the coldest day was -55 in the city of Fairbanks. There are interior areas where it was quite a bit colder, more than -60. The big thing last winter was the length of the deep cold. There were 17 days in a row in which the temps did not rise above 20 below, and quite a few of them were 40 below and colder. They came when the days were shortest, and they made the ice fog worse... they said it was a good initiation into winter here, because it was so cold. Me? I was just grateful that I had been wrong. I was just sure that a human could not breath outside if it was 40 below. Well, let me tell you, you can. But! You want to do it through a wool scarf. You do not want to expose your bare skin anywhere you do not have to. Since I smoke, I am forced to spend some time (about five minutes at a time) outdoors, no matter what the weather. Last winter I worked right downtown, and there are a lot of people in that area who do not drive vehicles in the winter at all. They walk everywhere.

Winterizing Vehicles and Headbolts
Think about it. Years ago, there was no choice. Autos would not run in the winter weather here. And they still would not, if it were not for the special heaters. "Winterizing" here means an oil pan heater, transmission heaters, engine block heaters, changing to lighter-weight oil, making sure your antifreeze is good to -60 degrees... and then there is where these things are plugged in, and how. Every grill on every car running in the winter here has a three-pronged electrical cord end hanging out about 6 inches. This is your "headbolt" or the engine block heater (and any other heaters which are plugged into it).

Every business with employees, every home, has outside electrical outlets for vehicles to use in the winter. Large apartment buildings have at least one outlet per apartment, and most have two. In parking lots they are on metal standards between the rows of cars. Someone who emailed me recently from Wisconsin says they call them "hitchin' posts" for cars there. Some apartments and homes have "headbolt switches" where you turn a switch on inside your apartment to activate the current to your vehicle.

Remote Start
The ultimate convenience to have if you have to park outside (and everyone does, at times) is a remote start control. They install electronics and a small antenna in the vehicle, and with a small remote control your vehicle can be started from varying distances, depending on the product. And I know what you're thinking, but that won't work. When your car starts, the doors automatically lock. If someone breaks in, a touch to either the gas or brake and the car shuts off unless you have the key and turn it on. So, if you spend some time in the market, when you get in line you just punch the button, and by the time you get out to the vehicle and load your purchases, the car is warm.

Snow and Ice Fog
That brings me to ice fog. Well, in a round-about way. First, because of the extreme cold, it is very dry here. The snow is extremely dry, and I saw in a recent newspaper article just how dry it is... Normal wet snow in other areas takes 5-8 inches to make one inch of water. Fairbanks snow has a ratio of one to 20. It takes 20 inches of snow to make one inch of water. That's how dry it is. Once it is good and cold, all the snow brushes off easily. It is as light and fluffier than powder detergent. It blows and swirls across the road and flies into the air, until it is like fog. At 20 below, do you know how far the trail of your exhaust follows your vehicle? Long way... and at 40 below it is much further. And, although there is an ordinance against leaving engines running in parking lots, many people do. At 40 below, it does not take long for a vehicle seat to freeze solid. And windows, and doors, and so forth.

Fairbanks sits in a valley... the Tanana River valley. So it is prone to inversion layers. All that exhaust just sits there. During the day, if the sun shines and it is 20 below, more or less, you can see what look like iridescent crystals drifting through the air in all the colors of the rainbow. It is ice crystals--moisture. From people breathing, from exhaust. When enough of it collects, it creates ice fog. Because it is created from ice crystals, everything is reflected back at you, and it is very difficult to see anything at all. I have gone through all the fogs that California has to offer, and this is worse than any of them. Add swirling snow to the mix, and it makes for an un-fun day. Luckily, it doesn't last too long. It is better than California fog in that respect. It only forms through the very coldest part of winter.

Snow Trivia
Another bit of trivia about the snow here. A side-effect of the dry snow is that the colder it is, the crunchier it is. There is no way anyone can sneak up on you when it is cold. Each footfall is a big "CRUNCH!" Yet another oddity I had never seen, is what happens sometimes when it snows. If it is actively snowing after dark (at least some of the time), lights (and I mean streetlights, vehicle lights, porch lights... any outdoor lights) are reflected straight up into the sky for a long, long way, looking like a forest of searchlights pointed straight up into the sky. You have to be some distance away, and in a darkened area to see them, however. Really strange. Jim says he thinks he remembers seeing this in New England. If anyone out there has seen this phenomena, I'd like to know about it. Just email me and tell me about it.

The photo at right shows a cow moose and calf enjoy the clear Monday evening near the University of Alaska Fairbanks. (Photo by Eric Engman) Photo appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newspaper.

Sourdough Status...
Everyone who lives in Alaska has a "sourdough status," and this refers to the length of time you have been here. Now, let me tell you, Alaskans are serious about the sourdough status. Few people whom you meet fail to ask within the first few minutes, how long you have been in Alaska. If they do a feature article on someone (and they do this frequently), it is accompanied by a sidebar which which contains statistics about the person, and prominent among them is sourdough status. In fact, I would not be surprised to find that finding out about the SS (my abbreviation, only) is the main reason for the sidebar.

While my sourdough status is about as low as it gets, having a husband who has lived here for 27 years is a saving grace (I guess I can't be all bad if I married a REAL Alaskan!). I am joking about this, but to them it is not really a joking matter, and I can already understand why. Actually, my husband is not my saving grace. Last year was considered to be "real cold" and their next words always question whether I was here through last winter, and when I confirm it, they say "Well, you're not a cheechako, then. Last winter was real cold." And I know I have passed muster somehow. And, this does not seem to pertain to any one or several types of people, it seems to be everyone I have met.

That brings me to another bit of trivia. No one has ever come right out and said it, but it seems that the worst thing you can be here is a "wimp." This applies to both men and women, and must have come from the ruggedness of the land, and the harshness of the winter weather. Things have changed, of course, but unless you do not venture out of town, you still have to be prepared to deal with those things, even if you have modern comforts most of the time. And even in town you cannot escape the weather, and having to be out in it at times.

Long Days and Long Nights...
Okay, now this seems to be a biggie with everyone, and there appears to be a lot of misconception about it, so I will try to explain.

Although it did not come up until after I'd moved to Alaska, I found out that my mother thought that night descended on Alaska along about the end of summer, and daylight did not come again until spring or summer came again. I still don't think she believes me, because she is always so surprised when I say the sun is shining, or it is daylight.

What happens is this. I will start with right now, since that is where we happen to be. Right now our days are growing shorter. According to today's paper (Nov. 5, 1999), sunrise was at 8:51, sunset at 4:17, and we lost 6 minutes of daylight today. This trend will continue, with varying amounts of minutes lost each day (I have never seen it go above 7 or below 2) until about the 20th of December. That is the Winter Solstice, and at that point, the days reverse, and begin growing longer. They say that at no time do we ever have less than 4 hours of sunlight. By February, you can really see the difference in the length of the days, and by April, it never truly grows dark. In June we have our longest day, whenever we have the Vernal Equinox (I think that's what it's called), and then the days begin growing shorter again.

The Sun
Along with a big difference in daylight time comes sunsetchenaridge.jpg (10006 bytes) a BIG fluctuation in the position of the sun. Coming from southern, and then northern California, I was used to the sun varying a bit from summer to winter, but was not really prepared for the difference I saw here. When the days are at their very longest, the sun does no more than dip below the northwest horizon a bit for a short time, and then begins to rise again, a little way to the east of where it went down. In the winter, during our shortest days, the sun rises in the south (southeast, of course), stays very low in the sky, and then sets again in the southwest, having risen no higher than (approximately) the distance it would travel across the sky in an hour in California. I think it rises only about 2 degrees above the horizon. There are very few places where you have a clear enough view to even see the sun at its lowest point. Fortunately, when we begin to gain time, it is pretty fast. After the first few weeks we gain 6-7 minutes per day, so it builds up pretty fast.

This photo by Matt Hage, above, which appeared in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, shows the sunset over Chena Ridge in early November, 1999 after only 6 hours and 52 minutes of daylight. I saw this as I left work, and it was gorgeous.

The Sky
Fall and winter are the times the Aurora Borealis, the northern lights, are seen in the sky, and they are spectacular. They are by no means all, however. I understand it is due to sunspot activity in some way (and I do not know the exact scientific reasons), sometimes we just have to stop the car and look, because it is unsafe to continue driving! We saw one recently that was magnificent! Very bright, filling the sky, and full of so much movement that you could almost hear music. And the winter sun is like nowhere else during the day. I'm assuming that it has something to do with the angle... but the sunlight looks pink and/or gold almost all day, and sometimes the entire sky will be pink. It is really spectacular. The photo on the first page of my website is one taken by someone at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where I work, and it is only one of many that we have there, that are gorgeous because someone caught that beautifully pink sky. Spring, summer and fall each have their own spectacular sunrises and sunsets, featuring a range of colors I have never seen elsewhere. Ever seen a deep teal blue sky? Fading out through all the greens and blues, it can be spectacular. Since we are up high here, and don't have anything much in the way, I hope to get some great photos from our deck this year. Here is Jim's page of Aurora photos... really nice ones, too.

The photo at right was taken in the first week of November 1999 by Matt Hage for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. It shows the aurora dancing over Murphy's Dome that night.

Well, I think this page is definitely long enough. I have more I would like to write, but I will do a second page later. Right now I need to get on with other pages. Let me know if you like the trivia stuff...

Home Email