| Weather
Posted: 11/27/2005 7:20:46 PM | What is the weather like in Alaska in the summer and spring and winter? | |
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Posted: 12/30/2005 11:49:15 AM | | tropical i think ..........? | |
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Posted: 1/5/2006 8:08:58 AM | Well, it is definitely NOT tropical. Summer is mild, depending on where you are in the state temperatures peak at about 80 degrees F (Anchorage area) and 90 degrees F, but the temps rarely go higher than that. The daytime in summer however is about 18-20 hours long in southern Alaska, and way up north in Barrow they get 3 months of solid sunlight, no night time.
Spring is pretty blah, it is short and in the cities tends to be very ugly, spring is when all the snow melts and the roads get very dirty and ugly for most of spring.
Winter is by far the longest season here, don't make plans to move to Alaska if you hate winter!! Depending on where you are in the state winter can be 5-8 months long, the sun comes up late and goes down early, southern Alaska will get around 8 hours of sunlight at winter solstice, and northern Alaska (like Barrow) gets 3 months of solid darkness in the middle of winter.
For a good comparison, the Anchorage area and Main have very similar climates. The northern area is like northern Canada.
Weather is not usually a selling point for Alaska, unless you really love winter. The summers are very nice and in southern Alaska could easilly be compared to Hawaii, just minus the beaches ;)
Also bear in mind that Alaska is about 1/2 the size of mainland USA all by itself. Driving north for 5 hours only gets you halfway up the state, and the weather changes quite a bit. | |
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Posted: 1/6/2006 10:23:50 PM | | test test test test test test test test test test tset tset test tset test tsettsettsetsete | |
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Posted: 1/7/2006 10:28:13 AM | For those who have never lived in Alaska the term Spring is known as "Break Up" and it is ugly in the city. Anchorage is about the size of Kansas City Mo.
The end of fall we look for "termination dust" which is in October early...We look at the peaks of the mountains to see how far down the snow dust is to estimate when it will hit the ground.
August is not nice in the wilds.. dead salmon line the sides of the rivers . It smells bad !
If you want to visit Alaska it will cost about the same as going to Hawaii. Funny but true..If you make to Anchorage to the Fly By Night Club. its got a funny menu ( spam & alaska salmon) a great live show. | |
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Posted: 1/15/2006 7:31:45 PM | | ... | |
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Posted: 3/11/2006 8:37:00 PM | | I've spent a lot of time in most of Canada's north ............. God do I miss it ........... I miss the pitch the snow makes when it hit's a certain temp ........ I miss the beautiful summers....... there is just so much beauty ............. hummmmmmmmmm | |
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Posted: 7/21/2006 1:58:55 AM | | Word of advice...if your into the outdoors you will love it here. There is an ol Saying...once you have been here you will either not leave as I chose to do 22 years ago or you will come back! The winters here are a lot more mild than down in Wyoming. We average about 5 above for the most part and I have only seen it dip down to 40 below once in 22 years. In Wyoming it is not uncommon to hit 50 below on a regular basis. Funny as it's the same mountain range but different alttitudes. You will love the summer as you have more energy from all that sun! If it bothers you and you can't sleep just hang up dark curtains and that helps. Enjoy it as it is truly the last frontier! | |
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Posted: 8/5/2006 6:00:04 PM | Also bear in mind that Alaska is about 1/2 the size of mainland USA all by itself. Driving north for 5 hours only gets you halfway up the state, and the weather changes quite a bit.
do you really believe that?
so according to your own math you technically should be able to drive from the southern U.S border (mainland) to the Canadian border in 20 hours.
Look at a real map, most maps grossly over exagerate the size of Alaska, but still..you should know that.
Alaska - 572,000 square miles
United States- 3,540,000 square miles...you do the math, get a calculator. | |
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Posted: 10/5/2006 5:46:27 AM | In the lower 48 we hear about the 6 months of sunshine. When the day comes that the 6 months ends and the 6 months of night starts, is there a sunset at all or is it like you watch the sun go slowly out of sight?
I ask because I spent 18 months in Vietnam and the sunset there was so quick that you could literally watch the sun go down. 10 minutes from high in the sky sun to it disappearing over the horizon. I always wondered if it is the opposite AWAY from the equator.
Here in Ohio we are about 40 degree north latitude and the sunset is very gradual. Vietnam was 16 degrees. Alaska at the furthest north is 71 degrees. Wonder how it is up that far. | |
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Posted: 11/30/2006 11:19:17 PM |
In the lower 48 we hear about the 6 months of sunshine. When the day comes that the 6 months ends and the 6 months of night starts, is there a sunset at all or is it like you watch the sun go slowly out of sight?
It doesn't work that way. Summer Solstice is the longest day, 22 June (on non-Leap Years) and Winter Solstice is 22 December (also non-Leap Years). From Winter Solstice we gain a minute or two the next couple of days, then we gain 3 or 4 and so on until we get to Summer Solstice. From Summer Solstice we loose a proportionate number of minutes until we get down to Winter Solstice.
This gaining/losing minute thing is reported on the news each night: So many hours of possible sunshine, x minutes less/more than yesterday.
My favorite time is Autumn when the first snows cover all the trash and are shining bright and clean; it hasn't gotten so cold as to be unpleasant. It is a gorgeous time of year.
Winter is very beautiful out in the country where I live, but you do need to dress for it, prepare your car to deal with breakdowns so you don't freeze to death, etc. There are a lot of cons to Winter here if you aren't knowledgable about dealing with severe cold. Once winter gets started when you tell someone the temperature you generally don't need to add the "below zero," that is automatically understood. Actually, Interior Alaska gets less snow than the southern portions of the State. Valdez gets considerably more snow than we here in Delta Junction.
Spring, the most beautiful part of the year in most of the lower 48 is pretty grim here. That is when the snow goes out and the melt makes everything a lake of mud. We call it break up. I break Spring into 3 parts: break up, green up, spring.
Summer is nice, if you don't mind mosquitoes. We aren't entirely joking when we credit the mosquito with being the State Bird (in truth it is the Willow Ptarmigan). Last summer, here in the Interior, the temperatures went to over 100° and we had much more rain than we usually do.
Of course, that is all different on the North Slope when the sun goes down and stays down for winter and comes up and stays up in the summer. I speak only for the lower, road reachable parts of the State.
However, even on the North Slope it doesn't go from one extreme to the other instantly. | |
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Posted: 12/1/2006 6:02:09 AM | Wow. You just talked me out of ever visiting.
I have always wondered something about weather.
If zero by definition means "the lowest point or degree", how can the temperature ever be below zero? By the same logic, how can there be negatve numbers?
Unless you are the national deficit.......
Mosquitoes, mudslides, freeze to death in a stalled car.... Ohio suddenly seems okay. | |
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Posted: 12/18/2006 7:05:54 PM | | I lived in Fairbanks in the late 70's for three years. The coldest I experienced was -75 degrees (that's below zero). It was a little chilly to be outside but you definitely dress for it. It's a different way of life. You learn how to live in that kind of environment. I wouldn't have traded the experience for anything. I truly loved it. And, I would move back in a heartbeat if I knew I could make a living there. | |
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Posted: 12/26/2006 8:28:55 PM | | oh its nice here always sunny lots of people on the beach all year long lots of bikini ladies | |
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Posted: 12/27/2006 3:21:23 AM | | You didn't tell them those bikini ladies were at the indoor pool | |
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Posted: 3/12/2007 2:20:21 PM | Anchorage is very mild, compared to Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
When I lived there, it would hit 80's regularly on the porch during July and August. But also drop to 40's and 50's at night. You can lay out and get a tan, especially if you are out of the wind and in the sun.
During the winter, Anchorage hits -25F for about a month around January-February.
Alaska is absolutely beautiful. So clean and scenic. | |
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Posted: 3/13/2007 3:35:45 PM | In Prudhoe, there is a saying:
"There's a girl underneath every palm tree." | |
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Posted: 5/2/2007 1:23:13 PM | | I have only been here a couple months now, so each season will be a new one for me, after knowing the heat and humidity of Alabama and Oklahoma. The weather is just a added bonus to the beauty of this place. Being a photographer I can't even catch it in my picturs, but its been amazing watching the snowly and ice melting away so fast. | |
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Posted: 6/17/2007 9:29:11 AM | I live in a hot and dry desert town of El Paso,TX.It's get's up to 100+ in the summer and warm to cold in winter.In fact,we don't know winter here-it has not came in a while.Last summer,El Paso had a flood.Homes,streets and companies were washed away.That has not happened in over a century they said.I'm sure Alaska is beautiful.How do you deal with 6 months of night/day? I need to see the sun in the day and moon at night.That would freak me out.Has anyone seen the northern lights? I have seen pictures. | |
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EB1
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Joined: 7/31/2006
Msg: 20 | |
| Weather
Posted: 9/17/2007 2:18:30 AM | Alaska sounds like my home country.
In the summer, sun really don't go down. In winter there is lots of snow and you can see the Northern lights.
I would fit right in.....Hmmm.....Thinking of relocating | |
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Posted: 9/26/2007 10:57:57 AM | In late January I shall (perhaps if everything goes as planned) be coming to Alaska ... to work.
The town has approximately 16 miles of paved roads and the rest is not.
hmmmmm ... flannel is the fashion then? | |
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Posted: 9/26/2007 6:22:41 PM | I have been here now 6 months, the beauty of this place never faulters. We have the first termination dusting on the mountain tops now only adding to the splender of colors now. Its finally getting darker now, that 20 to 21 hours of daylight was killing me, it had its pros and cons. If anyone is interested drop me a email and I will be glad to share some of my photography with you (im a free lance published photographer)
This past weekend stood only feet away from a grizzly and her cubs, black bears, Bull mooses, silver/red foxes, you name it..and oh yeah, wolves...the same wolf sean penn used in his movie "Into Alaska"
Oh yeah I have a group for anyone coming to alaska, visiting or moving..or just curious about it. | |
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Posted: 10/15/2007 12:53:26 PM | | I am moving to Anchorage in May 2008, going to be flying up there, have a job lined up with Holland America and at EAFB. I am not in the Air Force but have a few connections that got me working in the BX. I was in Alaska in 2005 and was in a car accident on Parks Highway MilePost 175 i think near little willow creek. Hit ice on Sep 22, and rolled over. Was not hurt. That night there was 3 accidents with in 3 miles, 3 people were killed all together. I took a one way ticket home and miss it sooo much. That is why I am moving to Anchorage... If anyone knows of a person who is looking for a roommate in May 2008 give me a e-mail. | |
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stacj
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Joined: 6/27/2007
Msg: 24 | |
| Weather
Posted: 3/29/2008 6:00:23 PM | | Several years ago I heard and still wonder if it is true that there’s some area’s in Alaska that fly in hair stylist, teachers, doctors ect… They work for a few weeks then leave. They do this on a regular schedule. I have tried looking into this but have no idea where to find information about it. If anyone knows if this is true and where I can find out more about it please send me a email. | |
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