Past cold spells have proven worse in Interior
Published Thursday, January 8, 2009
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — It could be worse. The current cold snap that has shrouded Fairbanks in a sea of ice fog for the past week and a half might seem bad, but it’s nothing compared to some previous cold snaps, according to statistics provided by the National Weather Service.
• Wednesday marked the 12th day in a row of the current cold wave in Fairbanks, but the low temperature on only nine of those days has hit 40 degrees below zero or colder. The all-time record for consecutive days with low temperatures of 40 below or colder is 18, which was set in 1964 and again in 1971.
• The current cold snap takes a back seat to the cold snap of January 1989, too. That cold snap boasted 14 days in a row that the low temperature dropped to 40 below or colder.
• Counting Wednesday, there have been 12 consecutive days with a low temperature of 20 below or colder. The all-time record is 37 consecutive days set in 1917.
• Tuesday was the coldest day of the current cold wave with a high temperature of 41 below at Fairbanks International Airport and a low of 47 below. It was the second straight day that the temperature at the airport failed to climb above 40 below. The record for the longest stretch of consecutive days where the high temperature was 40 below or colder was nine in 1961.
• While this has been the coldest start to the month of January since 2000, it is only the eighth coldest start to the month of January in the last 100 years.
• No new low temperature records have been set at the airport during the current cold snap and it’s highly unlikely any will be. The record low for Wednesday was 55 below set in 1975. The coldest temperature recorded at the airport in the last 12 days was 47 below.
“This all continues to serve as a reminder that there have been many longer periods of cold weather at Fairbanks during the last 100 years,” the National Weather Service reported in a press release issued early Wednesday morning.
If that doesn’t cheer bone-chilled Fairbanksans up, maybe this will: It’s going warm up.
The bad news is that it’s going to take another four or five days before that happens, unless you happen to live in the hills.
“The hills will warm up this weekend but down in the valleys there’s not going to be much to push the cold weather out,” meteorologist Jim Brader said on Wednesday from the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. “It still could be 25 to 30 below for the highs this weekend.”
While that would be balmy compared to the last few days — the high temperature climbed all the way up to 37 below on Wednesday at Fairbanks International Airport, the warmest temperature since a 38 below reading on New Year’s Day — it will still be chilly, Brader said.
It won’t be until late Sunday or early Monday that residents in Alaska’s second-largest city get to come in from the cold.
“We’re expecting above zero on Monday,” Brader predicted. “We’re going to get a chinook that comes in from the south.”
It’s still too early to predict how warm the temperatures will be, but Brader said it will be a “dramatic” change from what residents have been experiencing for the past two weeks.
Community Discussion
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Ooooooh..... above zero??!! Where are my shorts, baby?
Amen to that glow.
Broke 30 here and I was out in my carhartt sweater and sneakers
If it were easy to live here, everyone would live here. Want to stay real warm? Find an old eskimo lady at one of the churches and have her make you a warm parka, and it won't matter how cold it gets outside. Plus they look cool and are nice heirlooms.
I remember that cold snap in 1989.
"Warmed up" to Zero afterwards, and this lady goes riding by in her car with the convertible top down.
At the time I had logged just four years in Alaska, and thought I'd seen everything.
20 years later...wonder what's in store after this one heads out?
I'm just ready for it to be gone.
Fairbanks did make the Today Show Wednesday morning though......
Ann Curry and her "if you think you're cold....." line to the rest of the world.
Nice!
Ahhh yes, 1989, those were the days. They closed the schools that year due to the cold snap, very rare. I love hearing out-of-towners asking about this wee current breeze being the worst we've seen. This is cake baby!
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I also remember Jan 89...that cold snap ended with a chinook here in the foothills, I watched the temperature go from -65 at 9 pm to +45 by midnight; 110 degrees in 3 hours. Counting kids, there was about 50 of us here on the creek and man, was the next day party!
-35 here tonite. I stole this link from another article:
http://pafg.arh.noaa.gov/wmofcst.php?wmo...
Cheer up folks, Interior Alaskan temperature will get to 70 above in about 5 months or so, and then we can start complaining about the mosquitoes and wasps. Might even be a lightning strike to get the tundra smoking real good, too. And by the way, where are the tickets for the Nenana Ice Classic?
In the winter of 1970 at Chelatna Lake in the Alaska Range I saw -50 go to 50 above in the same amount of time so I will certainly not dispute what Denali Guy says in the above post.
I was on the south end of Admiralty Island for the 1989 Siberian Express that lasted 2 weeks, spent a lot of time trying to keep a generator running on gelled-up #2 diesel.
The good old days?
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I wish it would go to 45 degrees i would party my butt off.
I've seen the temperatures drop just as dramatically as rise. Some buddies and I went out on a camping trip on a February day with the temperature at around 25 or so, and it dropped to -42 well before midnight. It was a beautiful night, though. Full moon so bright it would hurt your eyes, and one could easily read newsprint in it's glow. (sigh)
Winter has not been the same since the one in 61, I was testing equiiptment for the army at ft. greely, unofficaly 74 below and we could not get a fire going in our yukon stove, gasoline would not light with a match, we had to heat it on the exhaust manafold of the truck. Yea the "good old days" enjoy them while you can...
I'm ready for it to warm up a bit. My kids who are not in school are going stir crazy!
ooooo!! eskimopapa!! i'd love to have one of those hand made parkas. those women sure are some good artists.
Winter of 89 was the only time I can remember them closing down schools. I think I remember coldest I saw that winter at my place was -64, but I know it was colder in outlying areas of town.
remember what the said about the shift in the Pacific and the expectation that the next decade will be colder than normal. This just could be the start of winter as it was in the fifties and sixties. maybe this cold snap was just what we needed to make people realize this is not Seattle or Southern California. Maybe they will think twice when Mayor Whitaker bows before the EPA with a plan for emission control that does not take into consideration inversions and extreme cold.
You must understand Global Warm...I mean, Climate Change, is a highly complex problem with formulations that are worked out and proven in the major universities around the world. Thank goodness we have such brilliant people like Nobel Prize whiner Al Gore. I understand that there is going to be a Northstar Borough carbon tax soon on all you wood stove burners out there, stop burning the wood! See, you are the cause of the Global W,..darn it, I mean Climate Change...Wake up Fairbanks! come on now people, SING WITH ME: We are the world, We can't go on Pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of
God's great big family
And the truth, you know love is all we need
[Chorus]
We are the world
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let's start giving
There's a choice we're making
We're saving our own lives
It's true we'll make a better day
Just you and me
Only in Alaska can we get excited about 0 degree weather after a cold front like the one we all have been experiencing.... Got to love Alaska!!
Blame it on the La Nina. For those that are interested in technical stuff, the Climate Prediction Center/NCEP/NOAA has data going back to the 1950's of the El Nino Southern Oscillation in the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the resultant effects on the Northern Western Hemisphere. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/an...
Time to dig out my lawn chair, charcoal BBQ and sun tan lotion!
Oh yea! LOL now we are gonna see a sudden surge in sale of briquettes and lighter fluid! :) t-bones slathered in sauteed mushroom and onions with a baked potatoe. OHHHHH YYYEEAAAAAAAA!
I was driving around yesterday and couldn't help but notice that I had to flip down the sun visor a few times. IT is getting higher everyday! I was here in 89 too and watched the thermometer on my back porch in U-West go from -50 to 40 in just a couple hours. About 8 years or so ago I was working at Eielson and it was -40 or so we were outside working a plane and in a couple hours time it was pushing 50. I LOVE the Pineapple Express! BRING IT ON!
eaglerock00: Where do you live at? I got a good rump roast that needs thawing out.
The ironic thing about the school closings in 1989, I was at Eielson High at the time, is that the prior to the closures it was ranging around -65. The two days where schools were canceled, it warmed up to like -35 to -40. It was a great couple of days off.
Thanks to the Army for bringing up some from the south on a Chinook....lol
I was in Anderson for January 89, we had t-shirts made. ;)
The nice thing about the cold now is we have so many more great choices for winter gear.
I'll take -50 any day instead of mosquitoes!
One year it warmed up and rained! After it was cool for a while.
In 1989 my family lived on Haystack Mountain, so we didnt get it as bad as Fairbanks, I believe there were a couple days it was above zero and minus fifty in Fairbanks. I think that was the first time my mom actually liked it up there:)
The other day some guy came into my work and noticed I was wearing my jacket inside. He immediately came out with what he thought was the witty comment, "If you think it's cold, you must not be a 'real' Alaskan!"
Yeah. I was raised here. I've lived here 26 years, five of those up in good old Fairbanks. But that's beside the point...because no matter who you are...
It's just effing cold!!!!
Myself and a few other former Fairbanks area residents here in Kingman AZ laugh constantly at the way locals here literally PANIC if it gets below freezing. I kid you not, they actually cancel school for ice on the roads. LOL! Equally funny is seeing people bundled up in heavy winter gear, including boots and mittens when it is 30 degrees or so.
ohh BBQ at Eaglerocks house! BYOB!
Copper River Red
I grew up in northern Mn., the Iron Range to all of you folks from Mn. or have ties to here. I also remember an event in 1970, February to be exact. Following is an excerpt from a little local paper The Scenic Range News from February 5, 1970:
"To our Minnesota weather watchers-whee did get a cold blast. The weather was nice and balmy during the weekend. Sunday evening the weather began to cool. Some said it took only 3 hours for the weather to drop 60 degrees, some say 6 hours. Whichever it was, it was cold. On Lawrence Lake it was -45 Tuesday morning."
I distinctly remember this growing up. The article forgot to mention how the wind came up a lot, probably over 30 mph. What I remember most is how the house started popping and snapping from the wind and rapid temperature drop. I am pretty the temperature went from +34 to -36 in a matter of hours, even a little ice fog in my little home town of Marble. Didn't close schools though, like these wimps down here (in the Twin Cities) do now for any cold weather. We used to sit there with our coats on and listen to the radiators banging away if they were working and you were chicken if you weren't there.
I rememeber the winter of 75. First time in Alaska, lived out in North Pole and I was very pregnant. All our pipes froze and we had no water, heater went out nightly. Military and friends finally moved us to an apartment in Fairbanks... I will never forget that winter.
I'm back in Washington State and we had a horrible snow storm and then thaw. I was transported back to Fairbanks...oh my!!!!!
I dunno what the hubbub's all about; I walked 3 miles to work this morning and it was just -68.
That reminds me- I saw a strange light in the sk....
aw, forget it!
Don't you just love Alaska? We must, we're still here and NOT inviting anyone else to come up here to live. We ARE tough people and proud of it!
Soon as it warms up on Monday the kids are going outside to play. My youngest is going sir crazy. But I agree I still love this place too.
1/15/2009
9 am new 16 mile CHSR
+41F for the last 2 days. The max low during the cool spell was -41F
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