Recently, local schools have had three snow days, which, in Fairbanks, is sufficiently rare to be worth comment. Contrary to popular belief, schools here don’t close because of cold weather, alone. If they did, the students would have sporadic days off from December to March. The school district usually only closes schools when transportation becomes […]
In November, I wrote of the pools of water that have collected on top of the biomeiler. They continued to freeze over and melt open as the weather conditions fluctuated. Their presence hinges on how the weather alters the rate at which heat arrives from below and the rate at which it is removed from
Today, it warmed up to 14F. This temperature, although not objectively warm, is so much in contrast to the temperatures of recent weeks that I felt no need for my hat and gloves while running errands around town. The record cold spell that persisted through December and into January now seems to be over. There
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Recently, I had noticed a great many cars and trucks with burned-out headlights and taillights. Soon after, while on an evening errand, I noticed that the illumination from my headlights was asymmetrical. When I parked, I found it was not merely an inconvenient accumulation of ice and snow, but that the driver-side headlight had burned
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My suspicions were confirmed by the radio, this morning: it is unusually cold here, this month. According to the weather service, this has been the coldest month since 2005 and is the coldest December since 1980. When I moved to Fairbanks, in 1990, the winters were much colder than they have been for the last
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It is an annual tradition of mine to take a picture of the Sun at noon on the day of winter solstice. As a consequence of the weather conditions often present in the deep winter, this tradition is “more honored in the breach than in the observance.” I don’t consider it worth the risk of
In our current season, we often have days that are sufficiently overcast to diffuse the Sun’s light to the point that there are no strong shadows or glare from any direction. When the world appears lit without preference for direction, even ordinary sights can be abstracted into novelties. In my video production class I used
During the last few days we have had one of the deepest cold spells in recent memory. Temperatures have been in the -20s to -30sF for almost a week and the forecast calls for it to continue for at least another week. This weather is nothing remarkable, historically. When I first moved to Fairbanks, in
This year, our youngest offspring invited two college friends to come home with him for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a pleasant change from the last few years, when the table held only me, Melissa and our two children. Thanksgiving, being a festive occasion based on gratitude, is definitely better celebrated with a larger group. Another
This afternoon, I had the good fortune to witness one of the most vivid sun dogs I have ever seen. Sun dogs are an optical phenomenon that occurs fairly often in Fairbanks, though I don’t recall ever before seeing them so early in the winter season. Unfortunately, I had only my phone camera available and
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