Thoughts on the Cold

Robin and I have been back in Santa Cruz for almost two weeks, but I have yet to finish a quarter of the tasks I have set out for myself on returning. Part of the reason is that there are myriad things to do when you come home after an absence of four months. And part of the reason is that the day after we returned home, I came down with a god-awful cold.

But this post isn't about that kind of cold. It's about the brrrrr! kind. Robin wrote this draft a while back, but never finished it, and has now moved on to new projects. But after reading it, I thought it should see the light of day, unfinished though it is. So here are some of Robin's thoughts about The Cold:


I can't even count the number of times people said to me with incredulity: "Why are you going to Fairbanks? You hate the cold!" I tended to reply that we were going to see the aurora borealis and the dog mushing and the ice sculptures, implying that we were going in spite of the cold. But the truth is that we also were coming specifically for the climate.

I'm a climate junkie and just love reading and thinking about weather as it relates to people and communities. One of my favorite books is Extreme Weather, full of fascinating statistics about the extremes people live in. Hilo is there, for the rain; Fairbanks is also there, for the cold. The most extreme places on the planet, of course, have no significant population. I don't care about those places, particularly. I am only interested in places with climate extremes if lots of people have chosen to settle there. What's the attraction? Could they all be crazy or is there something special in these places? The only way to find out is to spend time there.

I had been to Alaska before, twice in one year—near the spring equinox and then the summer solstice. Wow! What an incredible change in three months! We wanted to spend some time to actually get to hear, see, and feel the full change. Therefore, we wanted to start the visit during the time where subzero temperatures were likely and finish in the warmth of the midnight sun.

Fairbanks sits in the Alaskan interior, more than 400 miles from the ocean, so there is no moderating ocean influence. It is, by far, the biggest population center in the interior of Alaska, with about 100,000 people in the metropolitan area. There are very few populated places on earth with the seasonal variability of weather that Fairbanks has. Part of my interest was because it is so different from what I have experienced in my life. Here is a handy-dandy chart I made to illustrate with the places that I have lived, including now Fairbanks.  You can see the enormous yearly and winter temperature range.  In summer, when there is sun for the vast majority of the day in Fairbanks, the range is more like California’s but the highs are limited by the angle of the sun, which never rises high in the sky.

	Record High	Rec. Low	Variability	Win High		Win Low	Variability	Sum High	Sum Low	Variability
Fairfield, CA	112	18	94	78	18		60	112	43	59
Santa Cruz, CA	105	21	84	80	21		59	105	39	66
Hilo, Hi	93	53	40	92	54		38	93	62	31
Fairbanks, AK	95	-67	162	50	-67		117	95	26	69

Hilo, as should be quite evident, has a very temperate climate, in fact the most temperate in the United States.  You can see why we wanted a stop in Santa Cruz before heading off to winter in Fairbanks.  Santa Cruz cooperated with many sub-30 degree nights and mornings while we were there.

Now that the winter has come to a close in Fairbanks, let me tell you what I have learned:

The temperature does not tell the whole story.  It is dry in Fairbanks.  It is usually wind-less.  When the sun is shining, it feels much warmer than whatever the temperature is.  Fairbanks freezing is a hell of a lot warmer than Santa Cruz freezing.

Plus, of course, as I mentioned in my Spring Melancholy post, I was prepared for the cold.  Just throw on the right layers and it is toasty, no matter what the temperature.  I have little tolerance for feeling cold, which is why I dressed well for Fairbanks.

They must know something about heating a house in Fairbanks because, unlike our Santa Cruz house, I was always warm inside.  We didn’t touch the thermostat once, and the house was always comfortable, never too hot or cold.

And, most importantly, Fairbanks is a great town.  The area we lived was a very warm and welcoming place.  Whenever a car passed us as we walked Ziggy, the driver slowed and waved.  Every time.  I originally thought that I would only put up with this cold once, just to check it out.  But I have sort of fallen in love with the place...  [That's as far I got...]

Back to Leslie: I have one more post about Fairbanks that I plan to put up one of these days--a sort of catch-all for various things I never got around to writing about when I was there. So stay tuned. And then we'll both be back to our regular (or irregular) blogs.