Monday, January 19, 2009

Hello. My Name is Blog. And I'm a Weatherholic.

I apologize in advance for yet another post about the climate. But you know us Alaskans. We're all about extreme weather conditions.

Just one week ago, the temperature was –14°. Then warm winds left the South Pacific and blew across the Gulf of Alaska. They gathered fury as they approached and wreaked havoc when they hit land . . . trees were knocked over, the electricity went out for 12 hours, and the high hit 46°. Forty-six degrees! Take that, Minnesota! Who's laughing now, Chicago? I'm telling you right now, nights in Arizona are cooler than 46°.

The ensuing melting—freezing—melting—freezing resulted in surfaces that were so icy, you literally could not walk upright. "A friend of mine" stepped out of her car and slipped on the glare ice. Both feet shot up in the air like a bad imitation of Inspector Clouseau and she landed flat on her back, and then proceeded to slide slowly down her driveway as she struggled and wriggled helplessly like an upside-down daddy longleg. Welcome to January in Alaska!

The cold is gone. The moose went bye-bye. The snow is kaput.


We spent the better part of Saturday afternoon gathering up limbs, branches, and twigs that had blown into the yard and then burning them in our little outdoor firepit.


Don't worry. Next windstorm, the trees will send more.


I promise that this is my LAST post on weather. Until spring arrives.




Dinner last night: chicken pot pie



6 comments:

Michele said...

Thanks so much for sending the cold snap to Pennsylvania - NOT! It was 11 below on Saturday night. I was imagining how it would be if we could expect weather like this every year, and WHY anyone would ever want to live in a place like that!!!

A few years ago in January it got to the high 60s. All my bulbs sprouted.

glitzen said...

Hee hee, I'm just glad you are not afraid to list dinner menus again..must mean the flu has moved on to another household and left yours to recover.
Yes, nutty nutty weather. I fell on the ice today, hurt my hand sooo bad, I massaged it and moaned for the next few hours. Its so warm out, it would be wonderful to be outside but its downright DANGER. :(
Your pics are great! Here's to good weather ahead, righto?

Lana@The Kids Did WHAT?! said...

46?? That's ROASTING!! Heh... Okay. that's only funny if you're me... 'cause I work in celsius... Anyhoo, moving along...
So much for Alaskan stereo types! It's almost warmer there than it is here!

Unknown said...

I hope "your friends" feet got put up on the coffee table after her wipeout. Excedrin Back n Body isn't strong enough I've learned. Glad to hear your weather isn't as malicious as ours!

Helene said...

That is some serious weather extremes!!! I cannot even imagine what it must be like when the weather is -14 degrees!!! And, yeah, after that, I would imagine that 46 degrees would feel like a heat wave!!!!

Lisa Noel said...

you've got some beautiful photos there! i love the one of the fire pit thingy. My husband is a weatherholic too. Me, its cold, it'll be cold until April here in IL so I prefer to just try not to think about it.
Also should say I was in Alaska for a week in July 7 years ago and it's gorgeous!!!