Salcha Weather

Been an quite week here with the exception of an steady East to SE wind. Think the Yukon finally ran out of wind. Wind chills were in the -40 to -50 range. Winds were  steady 20-25 knots gusting to 30.   After the  Tanana jet shut down  winds came from the south thru Isbel pass  and  brought Chinook  conditions. That same warm air  shut down the ALCAN  and Haines Cutoff due to snow, ice and blowing snow.  The Portion  of the ALCAN in Canada has been reopen as crews there remove the problem  down by D-bay and Kluane. The Haines cutoff crew is still working on the road there to clear the problem of snow , icy conditions,  overflow icing and  black ice.

Closer to home an LP system develop over Fairbanks last night  dumping rain  and snow  from Fairbanks  north and east. Here  we just got rain. Of course  it made the roads become ice rinks. Hockey any one.  Received .15 on an inch of rain  and then temps started dropping. Last night at midnight it was 36 deg. and as the day progressed  temps  kept dropping. At the present it is 14 deg. F.

NWS has been warning about a cold air mass coming out of Siberia as HP develops over there and links up with  HP here. This air mass has temps recorded  between -55 and -80 F.  You folks in the lower 48 thought it was cold there.  HA. Anyways it is  to move into the state by Thurs night and be in my area by Saturday night  and Sunday Morning.

One village in Russia has recorded -88 F in that cold mass. Like Fairbanks it is close to the Artic circle and in an bowl so the cold keeps pouring in down the hills. They had set up an Digital Thermometer in the village square and at -80 F it died.  Some folks there had the good ole  analog units to keep the records for the cold they observed.  As to how cold we will get  remains to be seen, but  -30 so far is the minium temp. This is the time of year here for this deep chill to come, 80 below @ jim creek in 1971. So it will be interesting.

Rivers in the area still have area of unfrozen water.  With this cycle of cold,warm, then cold again  I wouldn’t think of going out on them. Lakes   are in good shape  but I would leave the iron dog on the beach and walk out to where I want to ice fish . one guy has his pick up on bottom of Chena lake  where it was driven out on the ice and broke thru.

Station Data:

Temperature   12.6 F

DWPT  10 F

Humidity 91 %

Wind  Calm

Barometer 29.37 in/hg

Soil Temp. 32 F

Soil Moisture 200 (frozen)

Stay warm and stay well

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

John

For those interested :

https://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/lowest-temperatures-alaska.php