Salcha Weather

Forty seven years ago on this date the coldest temperature was  recorded in Alaska. Temperature reach down to 80 below zero.  Was quite an frosty  morning in the maintenance camp  of Jim’s Camp which was 1000 feet below and .9 miles Prospect Creek  from which the cold dense air pour down from. There is a bit of  implication as to that reading of -79 degrees was not official as it was on an VP2 which both NWS and Davis said it could not happen as  it was out of specs. Unlike  the new Davis VP2  with sensor that shut off at -40 and ISS shuts down  at -40. Of which I have seen and can attest to. Even after sun up the unit  did not send data at -40 so it was not the battery. the old analog units could get down to lower temps. Here is the kicker the ASOS station at Prospect Creek did not send any data  during that time period. In fact it was for 3 days with no data from that  station (PAPR). So how did the NWS really get what is called the official temperature of -80.  Infra red  pix from satellite data showed temps in the vicinity of -70-to -74. But that is surface temps and not  at 5-6 foot above it.   Guess we will have to let other come away with there opinion. Myself I say it happen as the old Davis unit said it did.  This same cold  moved south and set record cold in the lower 48.  Several area had -40 temps after it moved south.

Now to this morning in SW  Alaska  folks  got the shakes around 0030 as an 7.9 Quake south of the trench released it energy . The quake was an slip/strike quake  instead of an mega thrust type  that could have made things get a bit exciting along the coast. An sea buoy close to the area did measure an displacement wave of 32 feet but  at Kodiak they measured only an 14 inch wave from the quake. Up here in the interior nothing was felt  but Anchorage  got shaken up. Kodiak  measured approx. 90 sec of shaking.  With that long of a period  of shake  you head for the high ground and forget about  catching  fish that get stranded.

Weather wise here we been have off and on snow showers. Mostly during the evening hours even tho yesterday Fairbanks was getting good snowfall while we were there. Roads are still glazed ice  from the rain a week ago. Need an chinook to  melted it off. Stratus layer is keeping us warmer then the central Interior region where night time temps are still falling below the -40 mark.

Station Data here

Temp   minus 17 F

DWPT  minus 22 F

Humidity  79%

Station pressure 30.24 in/hg

Soil Temp 31 F

Soil Moisture 200

stay warm and healthy, Keep an log on the fire.

John

For your interest:

Bitter cold records broken in Alaska – all time coldest record nearly broken, but Murphy's Law intervenes

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/Alaska-Science-Forum/alaskas-all-time-cold-record-turns-40?keys=

Well we finally are getting into our winter mode here. For a bit thought it was bypassing us. Climate folks  said  fall was going to  be milder and it was till this  cold air  moved out of Siberia.  While folks  in lower 48 complained about the chill they had, to most of us here who work and play in those temperature it was just normal for us. January so far been an mix bag of weather, for the interior. Rain (not an norm), snow and  wind. Speaking of wind the folks  out on Seward Pennsulia at the present time are under wind chill advisory for a wind chill of 56 below zero.

As of Sunday morning the  cold air mass  had move east to the ALCAN border. In it passing it drop temps here to -27 and also  brought 4 inches of snow in it passing. This made for interesting driving conditions as just prior to it we had rain and freezing rain in the area. Been busy  clearing snow  and piling it up on several snow dumps I have  so melt water  goes into the Tundra rather then make an mess in the dooryard.

Morning lows ranged from a quite chilly -42 at Huslia to 40 at Metlakatla. Save St lawrence island with +6 to +8 the entire west coast to Bristol bay the interior and North slope were well belowzero with 8 sites below -30 and two more sites below -40. Wind chills were as cold as -56 at Deadhorse -57 at Nuiqsut and -59 at Shungnak. Galena checked in with a wind chill of -51 and many other sites werein excess of -40.  Fairbanks area  was in the -30 and Bettles at -37. On the other end  Klawok yesterday high was 43 degrees. That is par for SEAK.

The outlook for the week is cold and more cold with possible warm up next week end. Night time temps west of Nenana will be in the -40 degree range as clear skies in that area will allow for heat lost at night. East of Nenana will see layer of stratus clouds keeping temperatures  in between -20 to -30.  Also  there is possible snow shower activity so this will also keep temps up.

Going be interesting to see  just how far east this cold mass will go before it disapiates. Looking at the jet stream and Satellite pictures out over the Pacific it is possible BC and Washington  might see an drop in temps also. Surface  freeze line is  south of the Chain at the present looking at this morning aviation charts.

By the way  the local Climate person Rich Thoman says we are behind our snow fall for the  year except  for Nome which so far has  received 55 inches were there norm is around 21 inches.  All other  interior and coast station are running 21-29 inches behing in snowfall.

Well stay warm, stay well and keep the old home fires burning

John

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/was-us-record-low-temperature-of-80-broken-in-alaska/60951

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

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

Another week gone by and  so far it been an  warm New year  with temps only dropping  into single digits minus’s.  Tuesday was our warmest  hit  the high of 37 deg. F.  At  0800  that morning we were at 31 and  temp  kept climbing during daylight hours  as down slope winds off the Alaska Range  heated the atmosphere.  At the  present time am watching temperatures  flucating up and down as  the wind in Delta Junction   is building again.  Advisory here for 55 MPH  winds   across the flats.  Had HP parked above us past couple days  but it has slid off  to the northwest as an trough  moves in.

The  big weather maker here again is out  to the west as an 948mb low moves up the Bering Coast and  head of the front is snow  and  mixed rain and snow.  Behind the front rain as it moves north. Surface chart shows  tight gradients  and marine forecast  calls  for 50-55 kt winds  and 25 foot  sea  in close to the islands. On  the chart tonight they show area  that  had 35-40  ft seas. Northwest Alaska is under winter weather advisories which is related to the storm  also.

Here closer to home we are expected to drop in temp and  looking ahead  on one of my favorite site. Navy oceanography was showing that we could get colder weather  120 hours out. Will have to keep close eye on the  forecast as we get closer to that time period.  Hope we start getting a bit colder.  Both the Salcha and Tanana rivers are still open in places  and  that makes me an little leary to go poking around  on them fishing.  What may hold one today  will collapse under you tomorrow.  Also this week we got 1.75″ of snow  bringing the total for the season to 42 inches. At the present we have only 10 ” laying. The snoweater took  6 inches during the last event.

Read to day were folks in good news Bay storm  have filed for aide as they  took heavy damage there to shed’s, boats, fish drying  racks, and  lot of homes have heavy roof damage  from the wind.  Also that high wind took the Ice out  so they are not  able to get to hunting , fishing, and trapping  grounds. Yep it an different life out there in the bush. You  just don’t drive down to the  local Wally World.

Well folks  that about is it for now, Stay safe, Stay warm and Stay dry. Wetness is the killer in cold temps.

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

John

One more year behind us like all the water under the bridge in life.  2017 was an bit different  but one manages to adapt.  from 51 below in January to 93 above in June.  Yes it can get a bit warm here in summer without night temps to cool down the air.  24 hour daylight  keeps thing warm.

The year in weather we saw  -40 with the Davis  before it  stopped transmitting as the electronics in the ISS shut down.  had to go to my old  back up  to get temps.  During that cold snap  we hit-51 as the  cool down at sun rise has an trend to do.  Mid  June  before the Solstice  we hit 93 deg. that an 144 degree differential for those who keep track. Not many places see that kind of temperature swing.

The highest barometer reading was also in January  @ 31.71 in/hg. and in February we hit the lowest reading of 28.65 in/hg.   I have seen lower reading  along the coast in SEAK  but for the interior  that my record low so far.

So much for the recap. Today  has been kind oh an hoe hum day in between  down slope winds. Yesterday we had  gust  up to 30 mph  before  things died down.  No much loose snow left as the wind drifted the  last snow fall away. Now it down to  blowing  ice shards around and  it can get to be like an sand blaster as it moves those fine grains of ice across the surface.

Tuesday  sounds like going to be another round  of wind reading the  forecast discussion of which I added an  insert of it in the  blog.

Central and Eastern Interior…Very strong Gap winds will be
developing in the Alaska Range with a strong Tanana Valley Jet
persisting. The Tanana Valley Jet is already bringing gusty winds
to the Flats south of Fairbanks from Delta Junction to Nenana.
Winds increasing in the Eastern Alaska Range late this evening and
in Central Alaska Range by Tuesday morning. Winds gusting to 80
mph are expected in the Alaska Range with gusts to 55 mph around
Delta Junction. The strong downslope winds will also produce
strong winds around the Robertson River and Tanacross with gusts
around 40 mph. Gusty northeast winds will develop along the Dalton
highway from Livengood to Coldfoot, and the Elliott Highway from
Livengood to the Minto Turnoff that will produce blowing and
drifting snow that may impact travel in those areas. With the
strong downslope in the Alaska Range, precipitation will be
limited from Fairbanks south with only a few flurries or a
sprinkle expected as the front moves through. As the front moves
north precipitation will develop with snowfall amounts of around 2
inches possible, mainly north of the Yukon River. Temperatures
warming with highs in the 20s and lows in the teens Tuesday and
Wednesday.

An  1024 mb high has parked itself over Dawson, YT  and will remain there for an few days  with it temps will  be mild till the 850 mb level  drops in temps as the southly flow changes around.  It is expected to drop below -10 later this week.  If  those of you who are interested in your forecast discussion  it is available at your local NWS  office. It cover the entire atmosphere in your  area and goes in depth that  your local weather does not.

Keep warm  and safe   and yes I chuckle a bit  as I listen to all the hype  on the news channels  about the  lower 48 cold. yep that  is normal for  us here during the winter.

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

John

Little something to read about life at minus 40

http://www.farnorthscience.com/2008/01/07/ak-sci-forum/the-physics-of-life-at-40-below/

Well after hitting  from 40 to as high as 45 deg last few days  during the Chinooks we are starting to drop again in temps but not below the zero mark yet. That might come later this week. The PNA path has shifted. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-variability-pacific-north-american-teleconnection. Of course it is still  going to a degree back east.

Picked up 2.5 inches of snow last night and have 12.5 inches on the ground.  The snoweater  got the snow total down from 14 ” to 10″. Need all the snow pack we can get now to keep the  brush  from getting tinder  dry in April and May before the summer rains  start.

Last night on NWS  Alaska weather  show they had some interesting charts showing  the weather pass couple weeks covering the state. The Bethel and Kuskukim area in SW Alaska extending up along the  Coast to Hooper Bay and almost in to Nome and inland to around McGrath  they showed  it been Warmer  and wetter.  Even SEAK was dryer then what that area has been.  That  is where all the big storms been tracking  up along as they go up the Bering.

Here looks like  some small Chinook winds  from the gaps in the Alaska range  during this cool down period. Some  snow will be seen thru out the interior.

Wx here today has been  little cool and mostly cloudy. Spent afternoon out  removing the snow out of the driveway to my snow dump before it sets up and starts to ice.

Temperature  24 F

Wind  ENE @ 2 Gusting 5

Humidity 90%

Dew Point 22 F

Pressure  29.42 and falling

Until later Stay well and  keep an log on the fire and candle in the window.

John

Here map of my area in real time if  anyone wants to track  temps etc.

http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/mesomap.cgi?state=AK&rawsflag=3

My  station is  DW1453 or D1453 on the map.