Cold Snap

Sunrise with parhelia over Fairbanks.

This time last week it was in the mid-thirties and raining. This morning it was thirty below zero. That's almost a 70 degree drop in temperature in a week!



Around 1:00 pm looking over the Tanana Valley to the Alaska Range.


I brought my camera to work today and got a few pictures of the sunrise. It now rises over the Alaska Range, and there was just enough ice in the air to create some parhelia, or sundogs, and some pretty powerful light pillars. The color was really nice through the fog.


After walking around a bit I had a good build-up of ice on my moustache and beard, and a little frostbite on my thumb. At one point my cheek stuck to the camera.

At sunset there was a superior mirage of the Alaska Range. This happens in times of temperature inversion, which is fairly frequent during winter in the interior of Alaska. This just means that warm air sits on top of the colder air in the valley. For a short time many of the mountains appeared to be inverted above the actual mountain range. Because the density of the air changes so rapidly, light from the top of the mountains is bent much more than light from the bottom giving the illusion of sort of a mountain 'forest'. Denali was looming over itself!



Superior mirage over the Alaska Range, with Denali in the center right. Click to enlarge.


I really can't believe how many atmospheric optic effects occur here. It's really, really cool.

Favorite not Totally Unscience Related Websites

Need to waste some time sitting out the most disgusting weather on the planet, otherwise known as 'just warm enough to not snow'?

(1)     If you're wondering if the Large Hadron Collider has destroyed the world yet, you can always check at this website (I provide you no link, it is more gratifying to type it. Don't cheat and copy and paste!):

http://www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com

A couple of my favorite comics are (mostly safe for work, but sometimes not):

(2)    Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

(3)    and XKCD (really my favorite). There is a disclaimer here: "Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."



(4)    One that is sometimes funny, but almost always informative is Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy Blog on Discover Magazine.

Have fun, be safe, laugh, and maybe learn something cool.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Icy conditions persist in Interior Alaska storm warning extended

Check out this picture in the News Miner this morning from Monday:

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Icy conditions persist in Interior Alaska storm warning extended

I worry that Kate and I brought some New England weather with us to Alaska. Unfortunately, New England weather does not mix very well with sub-zero Alaska roads. We're in for the day today, which is good. I need the time to catch up on some homework.

Open Question About Salt Use

I've asked around, and searched online and on few journals, but I'm not sure why salt isn't used in the interior of Alaska. I'm not at all proposing to use it since it's terrible for cars and can cause environmental damage in sensitive areas.

I'm just curious if it is a permafrost sensitivity issue, or just getting salt to the interior issue. I think permafrost is neat, and I am glad that salt is not used here, despite my really not liking driving to work today.

Any links or articles would be greatly appreciated!

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Freezing rain closes schools shuts down bus service in Fairbanks roads hazardous

***Update 2: Good article from the school administration about yesterday:
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Fairbanks school district administrators recount decision to close schools***

**Update: Just overheard in the hall:***
"I've been here for 12 years and I've never seen the roads this bad"***

Some bad unfortunate decisions being made in Fairbanks this morning.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Freezing rain closes schools shuts down bus service in Fairbanks roads hazardous

We knew when we moved here that there were no school closures due to snow (kids still have outdoor recess until it is -20 F), but this is ridiculous. They finally moved to call off school once students were already there, and I just received notice now at 9:30 am that classes are to be canceled at the university.

When we woke up this morning there was an alert on the radio from the Alaska State Troopers not to travel anywhere unless it is absolutely essential.

We drove to work today between 5 and 15 mph most of the way (50 mph zone) and at times it felt too fast. At 5 miles per hour it was difficult to control the car downhill. Sidewalks and roads are a kind of ice that I have never seen before on roadways. It is smoother than any ice rink ice I have seen and it covers every inch of roadway.

It is supposed to continue raining, freezing rain, and 'ice pellets' for the next two days. It is over 20 degrees above average, and has been for a couple of days now. Then Thursday it will drop back down to 10 below. I wonder what happens to this ice then? I think it becomes super ice.

Sorry, I'm grumpy about this. When there are multiple, multi-vehicle accidents all over town, the city buses shut down early, there are warnings from the DOT and State Troopers and the ARMY base shuts down, school should probably be called off.

Here is a pretty picture I took of the full moon last night.

Lazy, Snowy Saturday

It's been a long week, so now I'm just sitting around listening to music in our little cabin.



I only get to see our home in the light of day on the weekends. The days are still getting shorter by about 6 minutes every day, but the rate of change is starting to slow as we approach solstice. The dark doesn't really bother me at all, but it is difficult to wake up in the morning. I think my body thinks it is supposed to hibernate now. To combat this effect I started working out and climbing again and I think that is helping. Metabolism decreases when faced with darkness like this so it's really important to stay active. Kate and I are going skiing tomorrow. We also want to buy a sled, there are many good sledding hills at UAF.

Oh, it's snowing again. There is no wind in Fairbanks so the snow just sits on all the branches when it falls and the trees hold as much as they physically can. Then the ice fog comes in and seals it in, so it's not going anywhere.

Sundogs

Thanks Jason for the picture.

Here I am with Manbharat outside the Reichardt Building posing in front of two fantastic sun dog/pillar rainbows. I've never seen any as extensive as this. The optical effects here in Fairbanks are pretty unreal.

We also get huge light pillars 10's of feet into the sky from car headlights. You can see cars long before they come around the corner because you can see the beams from their headlights extending above the trees. Next time I get the chance, I'll try to photograph these. Here is a photo pulled off of the astronomy picture of the day website (photo by Walter Tape; Fairbanks, AK):

10,. . . 9, . . . 8, . . . 7, . . .

. . . 6, . . .
It's a countdown alright, just like New Years except we're not counting down time, but degrees fahrenheit.

This is kind of exciting. It's about to be 30 degrees colder than the coldest day we've had yet. It seems like every few hours the temperature forecast gets lower. Now, the high tomorrow will be -7 while the low is somewhere between -25 and -35. Woo, woo. Then we're supposed to get more snow on Wednesday and Thursday.

It's a veritable freaking winter wonderland.

Time to plug in the car.

Cold Snap

Tuesday's forecast looks grim. I'm pretty sure it's just a reality check to let us know that it is in fact winter in the interior of Alaska. Recently our lows have been around 10 [deg] F at night while the highs reach up into the 20's.

That's about 10 [deg] F above average. It has actually felt pretty comfortable outside.

The forecast for Tuesday has been dropping for a week now. Currently, there is a predicted high of 5-15 below zero, and a low of 25-35 below. That's a pretty cold mid-November morning.

It's not going to stay. It warms back up by Thursday to temperatures a little closer to (yet still above) average.

It snowed most of the weekend, but the clouds are supposed to clear out tonight. NOAA and spaceweather are forecasting a 50% chance of geomagnetic storms as a series of small coronal mass ejections hit the Earth's magnetic field. The question is, can I withstand the sub-zero temperatures to got out and photograph the aurora?

Finally a Few Aurora Photos from Murphy Dome

I took a drive out to Murphy Dome earlier tonight to take some pictures. As I get through cleaning up some of them I will post a lot on flickr. It was a little eerie walking around in the dark by myself on top of the dome. By eerie I mean I'm surprised I wasn't trampled by a moose. Here are a few of my favorites.

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Murkowski camp cries foul in ballot count

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Murkowski camp cries foul in ballot count

The lengths at which the Miller campaign is going to get Murkowski votes thrown out is disgusting. His lawyers should be disbarred at this point. I'll buy into some of the arguments concerning how far to go in deciding what "voter intent" is on a write-in ballot, but they are trying to discredit voter intent itself, spitting in the face of democracy. Joe Miller, you don't get to force your way into office.

This is What Our Cabin Looked Like Tonight

It was really pretty, so I took a picture. But then I came back inside. Because it is cold.



The Sun rises a little after 9am, and sets before 4pm, but when it's clear and looks like this outside why should anyone care?

Nocturnal Visitor

This little guy came to our suet feeder tonight for a few minutes. He's a northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus yukonensis). It was a cute little thing with huge eyes. I've never seen one that looked quite like this, and definitely not this close.

Earlier in the day we saw a snowshoe hare, but it was much too fast and camouflaged to get a picture.

Fairbanks, Alaska

Night view of Fairbanks from the top of Murphy Dome.

Kate and I haven't spent a whole lot of time in Fairbanks since getting here. So, we thought it would be a good day to go into town and explore a little bit. It was a really quiet Sunday; no traffic and very few people. It started to snow pretty heavily, which is good because we definitely need it. It has been abnormally warm and dry lately.

Along the Chena River on the north side of town is a little park. There is a milepost sign there with the distance to most of the world's large cities. It's fun to know that we are closer to Paris, Honolulu, and Moscow than we are to New York. Also, the state is really big. Fairbanks is pretty central to the state. Even though we are in the middle, Fairbanks is still 489 miles from Prudhoe Bay on the northern coast.

***Update: I thought something was a little off on this sign since it basically says that Montreal is about 1500 miles from New York, which I know it is not. Turns out that some of the distances are by road, others are the way the Crow flies. New York is actually a little over 3250 miles away, while Moscow is almost 1000 miles further (over the pole). I wonder if the city knows. Well, I guess whoever planned the sign didn't really know what he/she was doing. Honolulu is still closer though.***



There is also a WWII memorial commemorating the pilots that flew one of the most dangerous air routes to the fronts with Germany. American pilots flew across the U.S. and Canada, then Soviet pilots flew from Fairbanks, over the Bering Straight, and across Siberia. That's a haul. Kate brushed of the inscription, a quote of President Roosevelt, “The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man; or one party; or one nation. . . . It must be a peace that rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world.” I like it.


Kate brushing off the Roosevelt inscription on the Alaska Siberia Memorial.

Oh, and then we went to the grocery store. Guess what . . . it's Alaskan King Crab season. We got a little bit, it was really good. I like it too. Otis also got (more than) his share.


It was a really fun day. I took quite a few pictures, most of which are up on flickr now in a Fairbanks page.

Nanooks Won!

Kate and I went to a hockey game tonight between the UAF Nanooks and the Michigan Wolverines with one of Kate's friends and her family. It was a lot of fun and the Nanooks wiped the floor with Michigan 3-0, ending Michigan's 35 game no shut-out streak.

What's really great is the opening video for the Nanooks. It is a conglomeration of awesomeness. Check it out!