Don't Talk To Us About How It's Colder Today In Maryland Than In Alaska!
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| Delta Junction brags about its extremely cold weather. |
People who live in Alaska -- especially in Interior Alaska -- are always having to put up with calls or emails from their family and friends in the Lower 48.
"It's colder down here than Alaska!" they'll say.
Actually, it sometimes is colder Outside (meaning in the other states.) For a day or two. But, that's a fluke. And it might mean "It's colder than Anchorage." Or, "It's colder than Juneau." It almost never means that it's colder than everywhere in Alaska -- a state that, east to west, is as broad as the entire rest of the country, from California to North Carolina.
When it is cold down in the rest of America, it's usually because a mass of arctic air, normally centered right over Alaska, has broken loose and is wafting across Canada and down into the northern states.
It's temporary. Alaska's just sharing the wealth.
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| There was a 100 degree difference, on a single day, between two locations in Alaska in February, 2015. It was Minus 54 degrees in Fort Yukon, and Plus 45 degrees in the Panhandle. Do the math. And remember, "0" is a degree, too -- that's one of the basic, revolutionary understandings that led to the entire concept of Algebra. This is Jackie Purcell, at KTUU TV in Anchorage. |
Soon, the cold will stop, and your weather will pop right back up into those balmy, incredible mid-winter 50's, 60's and 70's. While Alaska's weather will continue to trudge along. Especially in the Interior of the state.
Extreme weather is so common in Alaska, that school closures (the gold standard of "something really bad is happening here in our town") give light on exactly how cold it really is up here.
For example, schools are closed in Washington, D.C. when there's less than an inch of snow. But, snow isn't a cause for closure in Alaska. In many parts of the state, there's snow on the ground from early October into April. You'd have to be running school for 5 months in the summer if you needed to avoid snow.
The key problem in Alaska is the cold. School districts often cut off school when it's Minus 55 degrees.
(Or -- in Tok, a very cold place -- absolutely never. There's no such thing as "too cold to go to school in Tok Alaska!")
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| An April snowstorm in Gakona, Alaska |
