Let's Talk About the Weather

You know how when something random reminds you of a song and then it's stuck in your head for like, ever?  That's what happened when I typed the title of this post.  I've got a little Salt N Pepa bouncin' around in my head now.....

Let's talk about sex, baby.
Let's talk about you and me.
Let's talk about all the good things
and the bad things that may be.

Here's a link if you want to get your Salt N Pepa on......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrtF45-y-g

Dates me a little, I know.  What can I say, I'm an 80's girl at heart.

But I digress.  Let's face it, the number one thing on everyone's mind when they think about living in Alaska is the weather, or more specifically the cold winter weather. And there's good reason too, because it definitely gets cold here and pretty much everything you do requires that you are mindful of the temperature outside.  But it's not just the cold weather that sets Alaska weather apart during the winter.  You've also got freezing rain, ice fog, blows and limited sunlight to contend with.  For a family moving from sunny central California to Alaska in the dead of winter, you might expect us to be heading to the shrink to have our heads examined by now. At the very least, you're probably thinking......

It's about variety, people.  The spice of life.  Keeping things interesting.  Staying on your toes. Being in awe of Mother Nature and experiencing her wonder.  There's something about experiencing extreme weather that reminds us of how amazing this planet is and how insignificant we are compared to it.  It makes me feel alive.

Not to mention, I had come to feel like the only weather we got to experience in California in the last few years was extreme heat (at least where we lived).  We rarely got snow or rain anymore, spring and fall lasted about two days, and the summers were long and blistering hot.  And we lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, not in the valley!  The drought there worries me. Even here in Alaska the last couple winters, including this one, have been mild compared to the norm.  Our climates are changing.....call it what you want.

Anyway, back to the weather here.  First things first.  When Alaskans talk about the temperature, anything above zero is referred to as "above" and anything below zero is referred to as "below".  For instance if you wanted to fit in, you would not say negative five degrees, you would say five below. Ten degrees above zero would be either ten above or just ten.  This completes your How to Talk Like An Alaskan lesson for the day.

Since the end of December (which is when we arrived here), the temperature has fluctuated between 30 above and this...

Our coldest day to date.

Yep, that's cold.  And isn't it crazy that in the last two months our temperatures have varied by about 80 degrees and never been over 30 above?  Wrap your head around that!

So what's life like at 30 and 40 below?  Other than the obvious, here's some things you might not expect:

• You become very aware of your nose hairs.  Most of the time we forget that we even have nose hairs, and are only reminded when we see some old guy who hasn't invested in a trimmer.  But let me tell you, the first thing you notice in extreme cold is your nose hairs freezing.  The only way I can describe it is you get this tight, dry, crinkling feeling in your nose.  It doesn't hurt, just feels weird and a little uncomfortable.
• The second thing you notice is your lungs.  The cold air hits them and you start to cough immediately.
• If you're a man and have facial hair, a runny nose can be a big problem. I suppose that applies to women too.  Keep tissue on hand.
• You can't make sharp turns in your vehicle, without risking blowing a power steering line.  So no U turns or sharp turns into parking spots.  This can be difficult when you don't know where you are going in a new town.  The day I was having my power steering hose replaced, so were three others.
• You need to leave your car running or plug it in if you're going to be in a store or business more than an hour or so, less if you have an older vehicle.  Many vehicles here are equipped with block heaters and have cords that hang out the front grill.  Most of the bigger businesses like stores, movie theaters, schools, etc. have outlets in the parking lots that you can plug your car into to keep it from freezing up.  It reminds me of a drive in movie.  One day I left my car running for about 4 hours while I shopped and then took the boys for dinner and a movie!  Yes, I lock the doors when I leave it so no one will steal it, but lots of people don't.  Crazy!
• You can go grocery shopping before a movie, and your cold and frozen stuff will stay cold and frozen while you are at the movie.  Pretty handy.  Back in California during the summer I couldn't even get cold stuff at two different stores because the stuff from the first store would be melted by the time I got out of the second store.
• You realize a hot drink addiction is in order if you don't already have one.  And that cold drink addiction needs to go away.  Those of you who know me well know that I have a little diet soda thing going on and have for years.  But let me tell you, walking across a parking lot with a cold soda frozen to your hand is not pleasant and it does nothing to warm you up during said walk.  I have never liked the taste of coffee or tea or anything even remotely flavored like them, but decided it was time to grow up.  So I visited one of the local coffee stands here in North Pole called Mochalicious and told the girls there my problem, and they hooked me up.  White coffee is where it's at people.  Milder flavor than regular coffee and twice the caffeine.  Add a little white chocolate and cinnamon and YAHOO!!!!!  Diet Pepsi stock is going down.
• Snowfall in sub zero weather freezes on your windshield wipers and renders them not just useless, but a hazard.  The snow falls, hits your wipers, melts and then instantly refreezes into a layer of ice that scrapes across your windshield making this horrible noise and smearing water all over so you literally can't see anything. Freak out ensues on roadway.  Thank God I was following Joe at the time I first experienced this and he was able to instruct me in the ways of wiper de-ice-ification. Basically, you get out and bang your wipers against the windshield to get the ice off.
• You can't go outside with wet hair.  It will freeze on your head.  For people like me who have very thick hair that takes a long time to blow dry completely and frizzes when I do, this is very annoying.
• You really don't need an extra freezer.
• Your cats get very fat very quickly.  Like, borderline obese.  Oreo has always been a lazy house dweller, but Tucker spent most of his time outdoors in California, climbing trees and chasing birds.  He has gotten so fat, so quickly that we've had to put him on a diet already.
• Your cats also start to watch TV, from boredom I imagine.  Here's Oreo watching Supercross with the boys.

• You don't see the actual ground from the time the first snow falls until spring.  I'm not sure, but I think our driveway might be gravel.
• If you throw boiling water into the cold air it will instantly vaporize into snow crystals.  This is super cool.  I was hoping to get it on video for you and post it to the blog but I waited too long. I don't think we'll see that low of temperatures again this winter, but if we do I'll video it.    
• The cats' water bowl in the garage develops a thin layer of ice and the garage is heated!
• Homes here are heated with boilers that use heating oil and hot water to run.  You know in the cartoons when the boilers in the basements come alive like monsters and terrify kids.  Yeah, it's like that. Here's ours....it makes all kinds of weird noises and I might be convinced it's a living being.

Even though this all sounds very extreme, I can honestly say that the cold does not feel as cold as you would expect.  In fact, I think that 30 above in California feels much colder than slightly below zero feels here.  The drier air here is what makes the difference.  I generally run around town in a thin fleece jacket with a long sleeve shirt on underneath. Now granted, I don't spend a lot of time outside.  It's mostly going between the car and buildings.  I have literally only worn my heavy coat once and that is when I went for a walk when it was 12 above.  The boys wear fleece jackets or hoodies to school. They'll add a beanie and some gloves when they head outside to ride the quad and pull each other around on a sled behind the quad.

While the extreme cold temperatures have their issues, the freezing rain is much more problematic. Last weekend we had an unseasonable rainfall with temperatures in the mid 20's which left the roads so treacherous that everything closed down including the airport, schools, and some businesses. Never heard of freezing rain?  Me neither.  I actually looked it up because I wondered how it was rain and not snow if the temperatures were below freezing.  Basically what happens is snow fall hits a layer of warm air that melts it into rain.  Then the rain hits a layer of cold air and cools it to a temperature below freezing.   However, the drops themselves do not freeze, a phenomena called supercooling. When the supercooled drops hit the frozen ground and other surfaces such as power lines and tree branches, they instantly freeze, forming a thin film of ice.  This results in all kinds of hazardous conditions and happy kids (no school).

This weekend we are supposed to be getting another type of weather system that will result in blizzard like conditions people here call a blow.  Basically you combine wind and snowfall, and you have a blow.  Visibility is a major factor.  Looking forward to my first blow!

So given all this craziness due to the weather here in Alaska, is there anything to like about winter? Oh yes.......first and foremost, the northern lights.  They are truly magical and totally worth braving the cold to see at least once in your lifetime.  We get to watch them dance across the sky right out our living room window and Justin will open his curtains and watch them as he lays in bed. But standing outside as they streak across the sky over your head is truly an awe inspiring experience. If it's not already there, add it to your bucket list people.  Here's some pics I took from our front yard.

There's lots of other things to enjoy during the winter here too, but this is getting long so I think I'll leave them for another post.  I'll leave you for now with a beautiful pic of the snow covered trees in our backyard.

Have any questions about the weather or anything else here in Alaska?  Leave a comment!

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