Equinox Paradox

A funny thing (always) happens on the way to the Equinox.

Just when the sun begins to creep a few degrees toward Spring (and you think things are going to warm up), that's when the real cold sets in.

Wind	from the SSE (160 degrees) at 7 MPH (6 KT)
Visibility	10 mile(s)
Sky conditions	clear
Temperature	-47 F (-44 C)
Windchill	-70 F (-57 C)

More of the same is forecast for the week.

Winter never relents without a fight and it'll be stirring things up for months to come.

Fortunately, for me, staying warm won't be a problem. Nothing is toastier than a traditional fur-lined parka and I've got one (with a brand new cover)!





Quyanaq to Kate for the beautiful new atikæuk! You did an excellent job!




(By the way, the photo at the top of the page was taken with my nifty new camera that takes cool panoramic photos. Click on the pic to see a larger image).

Finally!

After weeks of waiting and whining, we finally got a little snow. For the last three or four days, my morning walk to school has been a little crunchier, a little whiter, and I'm loving it! Even the lake and river are showing signs of freeze-up. Maybe fall ice fishing will commence on time after all.

Another long-awaited event (at least for me) occurred just last night. The clouds finally parted momentarily and I was able to catch a brief glimpse of Jupiter and its moons! I wasn't sure I'd be able to see anything. I don't have a powerful telescope at my disposal, but I do have some nifty (and gargantuan) binoculars.



Jupiter was easy enough to see with the naked eye, but I could only see the moons through my binoculars and (surprisingly) through my camera.

Catching sight of this very cool cluster made the cold legs and frozen fingers completely worth it!

Wind	from the WSW (250 degrees) at 13 MPH (11 KT)
Visibility	10 mile(s)
Sky conditions	mostly clear
Temperature	19.0 F (-7.2 C)
Windchill	6 F (-14 C)
Dew Point	17.1 F (-8.3 C)
Relative Humidity	91%

I know this is not impressive photography. I wasn't really expecting to get great pictures, but I thought it couldn't hurt to try.

I had no tripod and just set my Sony DSC-H50 on ISO. I know there are probably settings that I could have used to get better photos, but I am admitting complete ignorance here. I have not read my owner's manual and have not experimented with settings much.

And still, my little camera does the best it can do under the circumstances. (Great little camera that it is).

This was the best shot I could get without a tripod (I held my breath a lot).



And this is a cropped view of the same shot. It's not pretty, I know, but it (not-so-clearly) shows Jupiter with two moons on the right and one on the far left. I think I saw three moons on the right through my binos, but I can't be completely sure because...well...I'm fairly ignorant of astronomy too.



I'm still happy. I saw Jupiter...and it's moons....more than I've ever seen before.

And there's fresh snow on the ground!

Life is good.

The Dark Side of Sunlight

There is nothing more effervescent than springtime sunshine across the tundra!

With daylight hours stretching well beyond ten o'clock in recent days, children of all ages find making hay much more appealing than hitting it.






In other words, there's no time like springtime for staying out late and soaking up rays...even if it drives your parents and teachers crazy!



Yet, however strange it might sound, all that sunshine does have a dark side.

While it splashes itself across the seamless white tundra and packs a visual wallop that demands protective eyewear, sunlight (this time of year) doesn't actually carry that much warmth.

It slyly disguises still-frigid temperatures with its flashy smile and those who are fooled by its brightness often pay a hefty price.



It's still cold.

And no one knows that better than this fifteen-year-old girl who made the mistake of riding a skidoo wearing only warm-up pants instead of insulated snow pants.

Her frostbite wound was painful at first, but is healing well.

Lesson learned...I hope.

Favorite Foto Friday

My living room window ledge is about seven feet above the ground. There isn't much chance that anyone, least of all a child, would be able to reach the window without a ladder.

However, one Sunday morning, after the 40 mph winds had "calmed" down to the thirties, I heard this small band of snow jumpers playing outside and was soon surprised to hear a tapping on my window. When I pulled back the curtain, I found three thirsty wild things standing on a fresh drift, asking for a drinks of water.

I didn't mind.

Playing in the snow can be hard work, after all.

Cool Things 2 Do @ -42

The weather this morning is amazing...not beautiful and clear, but warm and calm.

In fact, over the last two days, temperatures have risen about 45 degrees! At the moment, we are hovering around zero with NO WIND! That's practically a heat wave considering that less than a week ago we were sitting at -49 with 35 mph winds!

Oddly enough, during all that wind and cold weather, school was only canceled once. Of course, teachers and staff were still expected to attend on that day, so at lunch time our fearless leader decided that she wanted to see some of the oddities of the Arctic for herself.

This short video shows water being thrown from a cup and instantly freezing in the air (that happens in the first milli-second of the video...so don't look away or you'll miss it) as well as bubbles freezing into a rubbery consistency (I say this repeatedly on the video...when will I ever learn to keep my mouth shut while recording???).

Just a couple of cool things to do at negative forty-two. :)

Magic Number

It seems ironic that our coldest time of year is when the sun is on the rise. At the risk of sounding like an old fisherman telling a tale, I still have to say that this isn't as cold as it's been in years past.

These are tonight's stats with a 9 mph wind:

Temperature	-43 F (-42 C)
Windchill	-68 F (-56 C)

I remember school being dismissed a few years ago because, not only was the ambient temperature around -60, the windchill was -84. And I'm sure lifelong residents would have no trouble topping that.

But, forty below seems to be the magic number that brings all things mechanical to a screeching halt. The school bus is relegated to the bus barn because metal parts tend to snap. Bush planes aren't supposed to be in the air at -40 or colder and I can't say I'd want to be on one that was.

Moisture from furnaces crystallizes and hangs in the air like a veil.

Without the buzz of four-wheelers and snow machines, the village might settle into an eerie sort of silence.

Except...

In temperatures like these, fabrics containing polyester stiffen and make crinkling sounds when the wearer moves. A group of children in store-bought coats sound like a bunch of potato chip bags being crumpled together.

Nothing silent about that.

Even the snow is noisy...like treading on Styrofoam, it squeaks and creaks with every step.

I just let Rudy out for the last time tonight. When he came back inside five minutes later, his teeth were actually chattering! I had to laugh. It just isn't often that one hears the sound of chattering teeth emanating from a dog.



It seems that Peace and Quiet, those long-standing friends, spend most of the year together. But when the mercury drops to forty below, Quiet looks for some warmer weather.