Warm'n Up...

A chinook wind blew through the valley yesterday and warmed up quite a bit overnight. It's hard to believe it was forty below just last week. now that it's near thirty above.

Had some hot dogs in the team today. The previous run, on Tues, was near ten below and today it was nearly forty degrees warmer. Jabba, the extra fuzzy lead dog, burrowed into the snow to cool off at every stop. The clouds rolled in on the way home and we had a pretty good snowstorm this evening. Only in Alaska does it warm up to snow!
Another shot of the hot dogs, this time on a break:

The smart ones lay down and stretch out so their bellies are on the snow; apparently it's quite effective in cooling them off.

Out Again...

The cold snap finally ended after a couple of days of forty below. Just wanted to give us a reminder of what we missed last year, I guess. Anyway, went out on the Ski Doo yesterday to check out the trail and shovel more snow on the ramp at the creek crossing. On the way back, got this shot of the sun setting behind the ridge.

If you look closely, you can just make out the tip of one the peaks in the Alaska Range, maybe Mt. Deborah?

Went out today with the dogs. It was still a little below zero down in the valley, but clear and calm, so a good day to run dogs.

The new boy is on the right in back (wheel). He's doing OK, just have to remember,  he's largely untrained and in his "terrible twos," the size and strength of an adult dog, but the mind of a puppy.  Great fun!

Annual review...

Well not exactly, but with the cold weather, it's been well below zero and only managed one dog run in the past week or so, thought it might be interesting to look at some weather stuff.

(Alaska Climate Research Center)

While we didn't set any records, last year was the sixth warmest on record. The only serious cold weather occurred in Jan. when it got down to -33 ° F. While this may seem cold, it was the first time in many years that it didn't hit -40, the benchmark up here for judging cold weather.

So here's how the really cold spells look:

It should be apparent to anyone who's not a TRump supporter that there's something going on here. There were 17 cold weather events from the 1930's to the mid '70's, then only four since then. The other striking thing is that we haven't had any fifty below weather either, not that I'm complaining. From my perspective, something is changing the jet stream, so that high pressure systems, which used to form over Alaska and produce the deep cold, no longer dominate the winter weather here. The most likely cause would be changes in oceanic circulation caused by global warming. But that's just me flapping my gums, not any real expert opinion. You can read more about it here:  http://www.newsminer.com/alaska_energy_desk/fairbanks-famously-severe-cold-snaps-are-getting-less-cold-and/article_a9e6c136-146e-11e9-86e5-8f6e902f0a47 .html
Finally, here's another sunset. If there's one thing you can do at this time of year, it's get good photos in the clear, cold weather .

December summary...

The average temperature for Fairbanks in December was 0.1° F, which was 4.2 ° above normal. The highest temperature was 32° on the 31st and 1st, while the lowest was -25° on the 20th. The warm spells, unusually occurred at the beginning and end of the month, when the temperature reached freezing at the airport.

Precipitation totaled 0.42" for the month, which was 0.22" below normal. There were no major storms; the highest one day snowfall was 1.7" on the 18th.  A total of 7.5" of snow was recorded at the airport, but some of the surrounding hills reported higher snowfalls during the month. (NWS Fairbanks Alaska Region)

The Alaska Climate Center hasn't posted it's monthly summary yet, so this chart is from the USGS weather station, just down the road from our place at the Little Chena R. bridge.

The "big news" this month was getting a new dog. Not exactly a Christmas present, he showed up at the end of the month. An old friend, Lynn, called and said she had taken in some rescue dogs (Newbies 8/6/11), was I interested in one? So a few days later she dropped off this handsome guy.

Only ran him once before the cold weather hit, it was 35 below in the flats this morning, but he did OK on the first run. so we're hoping for the best when the cold snap ends and we can get him out again. He's supposedly a husky/malemute cross and reminds me of Solo, one of the "arboreal dogs" (Solo's retired...2/28/13), who was a pretty good dog in his day.