How do you Alaska men and women take it?

The weather, that is.. I just read for the next 7 days, Fairbanks will have an average high of -20 F. Brrr!

Not all is that cold. Anchorage isn't bad. Kodiak is even better.

"But it's a dry cold".

Alaska does really have quite a diversity of climate. Some places barely get below freezing during the winter.

What I really don't understand though is how those guys in the northern half of the State put up with all those hours of darkness during the winter.

-20 f for a high temperature is warm for January! It’s the -50 that can make life difficult!

A bunch of years ago we were at a hockey game and it was -50 and there were 1800 people at the game. Cold doesn’t stop life here.

Temperatures aren’t bad and easy to handle. Just dress in layers and keep the wood stove cranked. Darkness is the tough part.

For me, I would much prefer -20 in the interior than 20 above in Anchorage. The humidity off Cook Inlet makes that wet cold go right through a person.

I love the dry cold and the dark. I start getting depressed when the days get longer

Cold is relative, sort of. We get the odd cold spell here in the northern lower peninsula, and you really do actually get used to sub-zero. I can remember running Bobcats in the winter back in the early 90's. -30 degrees is colder than crap when your walking behind hounds that are cold trailing. Go out and do that several mornings in a row, then the temp jumps up to minus 8 or 10 and it would honestly feel sort of warm! When I lived in Idaho in the early 80's we had a good deal of sub-zero days, some as cold as -45. It absolutely is more comfortable in those temps when the humidity is very low. Also, as far as trapping in that cold......your traps set in those temps tend to not freeze up like when it is getting up near freezing during the day, then dropping at night. I would much prefer single digits, or lower, to trap in.

I worked outside in -20's once. It wasn't bad at all... Probably due to it being dead calm, no wind. I would take it again over our +20 days with howling wind.

But neither of those conditions make for a comfortable Porta Potty experience.

Mike

Id say MN has some of the most diverse weather. -30, -40 in the winter and 90-100 hot and humid in the summer at times.

If there's no wind being outside in those temps are bearable, but add in some wind, no thanks.

You just dress for it-Fur is king for warmth in cold and wind.

-20 isn't all that bad. When I was up there, I'd check traps on the snow machine at that temperature. January 1989 we had a high of -50 for about two weeks. Schools didn't close, but they made attendance optional.

-20 isn't bad . As mentioned above, humid temps make a huge difference in tolerating cold or heat.

Dry cold is so much better to tolerate, for me.

Actually, -20 and much lower is common in MT , the past week has been anything from -10 to -40 , depending on the area.

Just break out the fur and shearling, wool sweaters and it's fine. I too love the night skies and long dark nights in winter.

Only crazy people live in the interior of Alaska.

We dont get that cold here, but I had a bunch of military guys from Fairbanks here one winter doing war games, they kept asking me how cold it was I told them - 20 they could not believe how cold they felt here. It was because the wind, plus the cold they almost never get both in the interior.

Here we are on open tundra, not many trees. The winds from Siberia blow through here and nothing to block it.

Pauls post brought to mind how the weather was when we got here in the early 70’s into the 90’s.

We would get 3 to 5 times over the winter 2 to 3 weeks of -50’s. The thermometer wouldn’t move. Ice fog so thick you couldn’t see 50 to 100 ft. Lots of vehicle accidents. Power outages could last for weeks in outlying areas.

Trapping comes to a stop during those cold snaps if your sensible cause not much moves. The coldest we have ran is -42f but taking risk that machine stays together and truck will start when you get back to the truck.

The Iditarod and Yukon Quest dog races go no matter how cold it is. I marked trail from Chena Hot Springs to 101 mile Steese for the Yukon Quest for the first 6 years and no matter what the trail had to be broken open and marked. One year Pete of Fbks and 2 others made the 100 mile round trip from Chena Hot Springs Over Rosebud to 101 mile Steese and it had to be at least -50f in the valleys! Life goes on for a few of us no matter the weather.

That's the opposite of most folk. I know I couldn't do it, I'd love to go up there to visit for about a month but then get myself back home. Y'all are a different breed up there lol. I'm just a hillbilly, you all are hillbillies on steroids.

I have heard that Preparation H is helpful for steroids.

Yep, the great North Hillbillies lol. Pep H is for asteroids.

Seriously, how do y'all deal with limited sunshine for months at a time? I think it not natural for lengths at a time.

Ya know everything is the same in the dark as it is in the daylight. The only difference is the daylight isn't there. It just doesn't affect me. On the other hand, I grew up in the Los Angeles area where it could easily be 90 degrees on Christmas. I hated every second of it. Can't stand warm weather and I pretty much live in sunglasses no matter the season.

Besides, there is a lot more going on out there at night. It's just more interesting to me.

That leans towards the saying, to each they're own, which is wonderful. I know I couldn't do it, my body eats up vit D3, I have to take supplements. Where I consider the darkness as dark, you see light in it. Nothing wrong with that! Actually, that's pretty cool.

My guess is everybody has to sit to pee owhen it’s that cold. LOL

This winter I have been taking 10,000 IU of Vitamin D3 supplement as an experiment and I have to admit I feel better, not that I was depressed, I do get outside no matter the weather, but we dont get much sun ,and storm after storm here is our typical weather pattern.

I take 5000 units of D3 a day.

I agree Jeff, You have to stay as active as you can.

I can see how someone living in town could get "down" Get up when it's dark, go to work when it's dark, come home when it's dark, and go to bed when it's dark. That could drag on most people. You have to get outside and be active if possible.

Catch22: I was thinking about doing things in the dark. Some things are a bit inconvenient but.........let a big snow or wind storm come through and wipe out 25 miles of trail and I promise you it is much easier to break out that trail in the dark than it is in the daylight. In the daylight you can't see anything because it is all white with very little definition.

In the dark, with a head lamp, you can almost always see the edge of the old trail.

I love it in June here when there is still a flicker of light in the west at 10 PM and starts getting light at 5 AM.

Ken, I remember when you came to Kalamazoo in August for the NTA convention. Must have been 5-6 years ago. You couldn't wait to get out of the heat and humidity of a mid-summer Michigan heat wave. You told me, "I don't know how you people live in this stuff."
July and August weather in Southern MI is terrible.

And it's 100 degrees during the cool part of the morning

What is also very nice is moonlight on the trails and snow. That too makes seeing defining dips ,edges or tracks so much easier than glaring daylight.

And absolutely nothing beats the Aurora in full swing in the night sky. That lights up the land in it's own detailed beauty.

Supplements are needed with everyone, really.. D3 with K2 to make complete assimilation is also what I take, among other things.

Good points about moon and starlight Sharon !

Add a 30-40 mph wind to that and you would be in ND. The cold in Galena and Fairbanks wasn't bad. It was dry and calm mostly. Delta Junction where the wind can blow can be a pain. Wind and humidity are not you friend in the cold or heat.

The dry cold is definitely a thing. Here in Wisconsin I prefer Temps lower than 10 rather than that 25-35 range in winter. That cold humidity (that comes with higher temps) chills me to the bone.

Full moons are practically daylight on snow

Literally light enough to read .

Yes sir . I love that.

Sharon, I think though the realization of proximity is being lost a bit. Most here in Ohio don't take or need vit D3. I do because of a health issue. We love the night, the moonlight, coon huntin, reading all the sign. But here we have a lot of daylight, at worse, dark at 5pm light at 7am. Ken made the comment that he gets depressed when the days get longer, here, it's the opposite for most folk.

I lived in Anchorage and Fairbanks, Ken. I liked the region around Anchorage better because of the Kenai Peninsula but I liked the wild west flair Fairbanks seemed to exude. As for the daylight, those short days made it hard to get much bunny hunting in. I didn't mind the cold at all. I miss Alaska every single day.

Agree with White don't know how anybody stands those long days 8 hours of doing nothing is plenty wears me rite out

Posco

I think you'd be very disappointed in Anchorage these days. We always joke that the nice thing about Anchorage is that it's so close to Alaska.

Fairbanks, as you say, is much more like the old Alaska.

I don't care much for the Kenai. Too crowded and I don't like that wet winter weather at all. Great fishing though..............if you can find a spot to stand

It's a full time job !

I see that

No loss at all on proximity , for me. I was referring to medical findings on far northern climates that endure more darkness, and by stating supplements are needed by everyone, that was in the plural , meaning the spectrum of them, whether inclusion or extraction ofD3.

The difference between Ohio and AK are quite obvious and easily ascertained .

I graduated high school in 89 and went on a fishing trip to Alaska as a graduation gift. (My dad later told me that we went because he didn’t expect i’d ever graduate college LOL) spent a few days in the anchorage area before we went fishing.

Went back in about 2014 and it was definitely different in anchorage than In 89. Other than a few things it felt like any other big city

Almost didn’t recognize Palmer/Wasilla it had changed so much in that same time period.

I was disappointed in it in those days. No one I knew of who lived in Alaska was proud to claim they hailed from Anchorage. I thought maybe that's what Dirt referred to as the armpit, that's sure what I considered it.

Dirt is across the inlet to the west and north a bit

Living in Alaska is like living in the Bahamas compared to Montana.

I seen on the news today that there is a huge wildfire somewhere in the west US.Thats nuts for this time of year-no fear of that here.

One thing on here it seems we all hate humidity.

You're right. In February 1989 I went from North Pole, Alaska to the panhandle of Florida for BRAAT (Base Recovery After Attack) training. I froze my tuccus off there. That 38 degrees with humidity was bone chilling. I was grateful to return to the warmer climate of Alaska ,

So what's the wind like in Alaska? I agree with the humidity thing, but wind is also another big one. When I lived in NY below zero temps were normal and I never really considered them to be cold. Then I moved to IL and experienced 20 degrees with a 40mph west wind with no windbreaks and liked to die. The bone chilling damp cold is one thing, but the cutting windchill is another. I'd take high humidity cold over windy cold any day!

Yep, those were the days!

Pete

-20 isn't horrible I think today we are suppose to have a balmy -6 for the high.

Woke up to -38 here.
Happy New Years to me.

Osky

we have a lot more day light than you guys in Alaska, but I like winter and short-day way better than summer, and the 90s degrees and the humidity, most people around here don't like winter, I love the winter, like Sharon said a full moon and it like daytime. summer time just gets to long of days seem like they just drag on , I can dress for the cold , can't dress for the heat ,

Most people I know are doing something outside until they go to bed. The clock doesn't tell you when it's time to quit your body does. Sleep isn't a problem when your worn out.

Here the wind always blows towards Anchorage, because Anchorage sucks.

I work construction and I am outside all day all year long. The wind and humidity are the factors on both ends of the thermometer

Winner Winner.Any one that deals with cold(below zero cold) every year,,knows all about the wind.I will take a calm 20 below day,,over a windy 0 degree any day.We get plenty of below zero days here in Upstate NY.I think our record was 52 below zero.However,,we usually do get a LOT of snow.One year I got ten feet in five days at my house,,and 6 feet of that ten came in a 24 hour period. Ten below with no wind is perfect ice fishing weather here.

Summertime...the total vampire experience of stumbling out of a bar at two o'clock in the morning into the daylight. I'm glad I don't drink anymore. People were out riding wheelers and operating backhoes at midnight in the summer. It takes a bit of getting used to. I hunkered down in the winter and trapped, went ice fishing or bunny hunted.

Oh Snap said "One year Pete of Fbks and 2 others made the 100 mile round trip from Chena Hot Springs Over Rosebud to 101 mile Steese and it had to be at least -50f in the valleys!" It is un real how much warmer it was up hill compared to the bottom. Riding up the trap line, ever change in elevation up, you could feel it was warmer. Even moving with Carhart coveralls on. I had five benches I would climb and it was always something to me how much warmer it was on the next level up.

I installed a thermometer on my machine since I could, older machine couldn’t. It is really interesting how much change in temperature there is in any change of elevation. It can 5 to 10 degrees in just a few hundred feet.

Somewhere in the 1990’s I think it was that the long, frequent deep cold seemed to become fewer. With that the humidity became more of a factor in keeping warm. Prior to that we dealt with wood Furnature falling apart and a 2 inch spark when you touched a light switch if you didn’t keep a kettle of water on the wood stove!

The goose creek prison

LOL 2 inch spark !!



That same temperature inversion is why we see vertical movement in marten during cold temperatures. They like that "warmer" climate too.

Yes, this and as MJM observed climbing up to higher levels in mountains, I have marveled at that too, summer and winter. The valley pockets the settled cold air and the warmer air rises , you can sometimes feel it as suddenly as if opening a fridge door . No wonder the old trapper cabins I've seen are a bit higher up on hillsides , near spring water sources.

That is why living in sizable mountains is nice ...I feel the reverse currents drift down from the slopes in summer , cooling off the valleys nicely , every evening at the same time.

At ten below the kids still wear shorts to school.

-38 Osky? Brr. I don't think we got much lower than -32 at the house. 16 18 below for the high. Be a good day to be lake of the woods lol.

Anchorage was suckin about 30 knots today. At least it was not like the whiteouts I hit in the foothills of the Alaska Range. I just turn around when I run into those. Blows the river down to gravel, ice and snags and puts 15 foot high drifts on the banks.

The good old days are back!

https://trapperman.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4211144/34/akhowlers-trapline-journal

scroll down to where JR is back from No Dak...

I heard that it got a little breezy around Palmer and now an earthquake

breezy but didn't feel any shakers

looks like the power has been out at the knik bridge with wind gusts at 71 and 74 mph close by

was only 3.5 at pt mackenzie

The wind is picking up steam

https://mustreadalaska.com/wasilla-...hane-road-in-juneau-closed-by-avalanche/

I prefer to have the weather cold so that the rivers and lakes can freeze over solid. It makes it a lot easier to find animals while hunting. Caribou usually put up a bunch of warm air in -30 to -40 and can be seen miles away.

The day after Christmas thru the 29th was a struggle here in Fairbanks. Snow, blizzard, rain, more snow, and loss of power for a day. Its 21 below this morning and that’s the way I like it. They can have that coastal weather.

You've helped me realize I forgot to take my vitamin D this morning. Thanks !

It was the first time my 1983 gmc plow truck struggled! Ever

How much do you have there total , do you think, Snap ?

Around 24”, I had already plowed 12 inches. A loader would have been better but none available. It took me 2 hours to go the less than 1/4 mile. Couldn’t get the employees to work or work trucks out until it was plowed!

I know it’s not as much snow as other places but this storm was devistating for us here in the Interior like spotter said. The 1 to 2 inch ice layer in the snow is going to make wolf trappers time a real problem!

Times are, there isn't a big enough plow ! That's a lot to keep on top of especially when it still snows non-stop.

Getting to be near five feet in the valleys , at least double that in the high country.

Still snowing non-stop here on and off like this for some days. Then dropping below 0 . Keeps it nice and fluffy. I dreamed of this last summer , so I'm not complaining now !

You can see that I need snowshoes now !

This shot is after two plowing sessions , already .

I enjoyed the Alaska winters (mostly interior) for nearly 30 years. The -60 and -75 was sometimes cumbersome, but I enjoyed the cool. On the other hand, I got a bit tired of wearing a headlamp for 2-3 months. However, Alaska doesn't have a monopoly on snow. Near where I am now, I was headed for some warm water fishing (mainly channel cats) in the Snake River canyon (Brownlee/Oxbow Canyon) a couple years ago. Snapped this photo on 21 April 2019 at Banner Pass between Stanley and Lowman. The hump in the background is the roadside toilet.

Sharon,do you have your own plow?
I got a blade plow for my 4 wheel ATV a couple years ago.Since then I havent used my snowblower at all
I kind of look forward to going out and pushing the snow with the bike.
You can get plows for the side by sides with heated cabs too,and some put track on for pushing thru large drifts or opening places after several snowfalls.

Safeway in Palmer just became an outdoors market!

Jack, that's a nice bank of white you have there ! And seeing how much had melted by then, imagine how much more there must have been earlier.

Years ago, in all the northwest, to the divide, the winters were consistently cold and deep in snow. That's why the huge cedars and hemlocks love it here. Like northern CA, the cooler and wetter it is in summer, the bigger they grow. I so love the big cedars and hemlocks here.

What was fun, for the locals, was seeing new folks moved in from California , complain about the cool wet summers , followed by serious winters with snow piling up on fence posts several feet high, temps way below 0 often , and no sun very much at all . After a summer and winter of that, they moved somewhere else.

Your red truck is like a pretty red fox in the winter snow