Salcha Weather

Looks like our normal wintery weather has decided to come home. Yesterday we saw an high of Minus 9 and the low was minus 19. In fact  at 0200  we were at -15  then the old mercury decided to plummet. Bottom out at minus 26.7 and the high today  was  well it didn’t rise much. minus 22.3 at 1430 hours and  is minus  25 at present as the sun drops below the horizon. The NWS issued an wind chill advisory as I am typing this.  We are expected to see wind chills in the minus 40 to minus 50 degree range. The forecast model for us is way off again as per sec. it calling for high of -16 today with an low of -18 and they closed some of the remote weather balloon sites to save money. Never have been able to understand  government run  programs. Seem like they are more for the bean counters then to serve the  people who pay there wages. According to news article they can do the same thing with Satellites. Yet 45 miles from Fairbanks they can’t even come close. In fact  when I lived in Ketchikan  the Canadian  forecast where closer to what we had then what Juneau issued for forecasts.

High pressure  has parked up  over Nuvuk ( Point Barrow) with ridge extending down to Galena at the 500mb level and be moving west. A trough  is digging into the Yukon Territory and allowing the colder temps to  move into the  eastern interior tonight. With clear skies the temps are expected to drop well below the normal for this time of year.

At the surface wind patterns from Tanana Valley Jet will  keep the wind chill in the  -40 range  and  also bring low temps to soe areas reaching  down to the -40 or better mark. Old mecury thermometer at those temps is useless. It freezes at -35.

No precip is expected this week and around Friday evening an southernly flow is expected to kick in. This will be bringing Chinook winds down from Isabel Pass and warm  the Valley area back up as the wind scours out the low lying areas.

Temperature   -25.5

DWPT  -30.3

Humidity  77%

Winds  Calm

Barometer  30.14 and rising

Soil Temp  32 F at 18 inches below surface.

Soil Moisture 200 (Yep it frozen)

My prediction is about -33 or so for tonight  and as the old timers call it  an 3dog night.

Stay warm and  safe

Keep an log on the fire and light in the window.

John