John and Petra's Alaskan Diary
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13th February, 2002
Winter in Fairbanks, Alaska
December sunrise over the hills behind Fairbanks, AK
(local time about 12:30pm).
You are never alone on the road, and don't forget:
most other vehicles are bigger than you!
This year's winter is not quite following the rules. First we had decently cold temperatures but very little snow. Then from mid November till Christmas we had it pretty cold here in Fairbanks. Most days it was below -30C in the mornings when we got to go to work on our bicycles. There was very little snow around the place and even cross-country skiing was bad. Most ski trails are in forested areas, so a good snow cover is needed to cover all the growth of the previous summer. It dropped below -40C for a few days around the 19th December only to warm up to -5C by the 22nd December. The warmer weather brought us the first clear skies for some while. Soon some snow followed but nothing to make skiers or dog mushers really happy.
Going towards Broad Pass in the Alaska Range (Dec.
2002). The Alaska Range is a weather divide, winds
are often strong, and during winter the air temperatures
along the pass are often much warmer than in the
remainder of interior Alaska as moist, warm air from the
south (Pacific Ocean) moves northward over Alaska.
Togiak (front) and Polar enjoying their time out in the
snow
Late December and most of January did not bring much more snow. The range of air temperatures was quite large. Everything between -43C and +2C was covered. We even had some rain. As a consequence the roads and paths were extremely slippery for a few days. The rain was followed by 36 hours of snow fall. As one can imagine there was quite some weird driving happening on the roads. It got that bad that the police urged people to stay at home, and only use their cars if really necessary. For those 8 or 9 days when the roads were very slippery and icy our bike riding was extremely slow. To bike home from work took us more than 3 times as long than during summer. There was no friction at all, and the bike wheels would slip easily. While biking my greatest worry was the cars and trucks driving all around. One could hear wheels spinning everywhere, and the cars did a lot of sliding with very little control.
It is now early February 2002, and we note the changes in the length of daylight. The first of dawn is now visible around 8:30am. It stays light till around 4:30pm. The sun stands higher in the sky, and it is nearly necessary to wear sun glasses when going outside. All December and January we did not need to wear sunnies because the sun was soooo low on the horizon, and appeared like a dim spot in the southward sky. (If someone asked me, I would say that the light in our refrigerator radiated more warmth than that "dull spot" over there in the southern sky.)
Cloudy skies and warmer air temperatures
enjoyed at Ace Lake
Our cabin (note the partial insulation in front
of the large triple-glazed window) is finally
met by some sun rays again. During most
of the winter, the trees surrounding our cabin
are too tall to have any sunshine hit the cabin
