The Windy City

Fairbanks may get colder than most states in the Union. And it definitely gets darker for longer than any other state. But the one weather condition we don't see here much is wind. Especially in the winter.

This past week brought both a record snow fall and unusually high winds. White outs stopped traffic in its place, snow drifts covered the roads in places and trees took out electricity in a plethora of neighborhoods when the wind blew them down across the power lines. Since the interior of AK doesn't get much wind allot of the brittle branches and trees stay upright for many years. Until..... the big bad wind comes to clean out the forest. The past few winters we've had record low snow falls, this year was no different. The first 24 hours of this storm brought about 19 inches of snow, which is allot. Right? Even after that single dump we were still a bit below average for this time of year. It's been famine for the past few winters, now we are feasting.

Make sure you mark your bike so you know where to find it when you come out of class. This particular bike was still there the day after I took this picture but all that could be seen was the seat post and part of the handle bars. Too funny.With all the fun of the wind and snow, at the end of the day we had a nice cozy cabin to come home to.... except the power was out for about 10 hours during the first day of winds so we had no heat and had to leave for the night. But the next day, when the electricity was back, we had a warm cozy cabin in the woods.

Northern Lights and Moon Lit Nights

After a cold snap (-35F) last week Fairbanks is finally getting its due. The last few days brought warmer temperatures (0F to 20F), roughly 5 inches of new snow, a beautiful full moon to light the fresh snow when the sun goes down and a great Aurora show last night to round out the treats from Mother Nature.These shots are of our cabin around midnight in the moonlight last night. It's impossible to capture the entire Aurora band stretching across the sky but it's there. Like a big halo over the top of the Earth.

The Return of the Sun

We have been back in Fairbanks for almost a month now but all the good sunshine and warmth we absorbed in the Everglades is still energizing us. It was -39F outside when we woke up this morning. That was the outside temperature of course. The temperature inside the house was very comfortable. Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from Highland Beach He's watching. Don't miss behave. Of course, this is what I told Becky but it did not work.