Time: 9:00 am
Current temp: 23*F
Sunrise: 8:46 am Sunset: 5:25 pm
Total Hours of Daylight: 8 hours, 38 minutes (+6m 49s)
I can not tell you how excited I am that it is supposed to be close to 30* ABOVE zero today. The last few weeks have been rough, with temperatures as low as -47*f. For those of you who haven’t experienced temperatures this cold I did a little break down of how things change as it gets colder.
-20* Temps.
- Life carries on normally
- must keep car plugged in if you don’t have a heated garage (we don’t)
- start car 15 minutes before going anywhere
- public school kids don’t go outside for recess
- We blanket our horse
-30* Temps.
- All non-Sunday church activities and meetings canceled
- keep car plugged in, and start it and let it run for 30 minutes, at least once during the day if not going anywhere
- start car 30 minutes before going anywhere
- kids dress in full winter gear even for a car ride
- dead batteries in a car are very common (I had to have my car jump started 3 times this last cold spell)
- Church meetings on Sunday are shortened to Sacrament meeting only
- Our internet and phone stop working (the cable people are supposed to be working on this)
- Things just don’t behave normally. Last week Jarom closed the truck door a little too hard and the window shattered into a million pieces
-40* Temps.
- School and businesses carry on normally
- Other then school or work there is no reason to go anywhere. Stay home and hibernate next to the fire.
- If I have to go to go anywhere, I try not to take the kids
- Start your car 45 minutes before going anywhere
- If you aren’t going anywhere you still need to let your car run for a couple of hours a day. If you don’t it can be very hard to get started, especially if you have a diesel. We have a big heater we have to put under the car/truck when this happens
- Leave car running when you go into the store or anywhere else
- It’s hard to keep the house warm. We burn a ton of wood and the cold just seeps in under the doors and through the windows.
- Frost accumulates on inside of the door knobs
- Church meetings on Sunday are shortened to just the sacrament
- Lettuce and other grocery items freeze going from the store to the car, or from the car to the house
- Exposed skin can get frost bite in moments
- Your whole life becomes consumed with staying warm and keeping things running properly
Living life at 40 below is just hard, cars don’t work right, its hard to stay warm and you just don’t want to leave the house unless you have to. We are lucky we don’t have problems with our pipes freezing. Some people have no running water for half the winter up here. Welcome to life in the Arctic.
Can you think of anything I missed, or do you have any questions about things I didn’t cover? Let me know.
Very interesting. I really had wondered how living in Alaska varied with the temperature changes. Your photos are breathtqking. Hugs and kisses
Aunt Diana, Thanks for the compliment. Hugs and kisses to you as well.
We have been watching a beautiful documentary about Alaska on the BBC. You live in a truly beautiful place, even if it does get very cold!
Sustainable Mum, It is a very beautiful place and still so untamed and wild. Thanks for reading and commenting!
Wow – it is just stunning (I’ve been watching the BBC documentary too!) but I don’t think I’ll ever get my head around that kind of cold. But one thing I am curious about, how cold does it have to get from them to cancel school and work??
Carie, I homeschool so wasn’t sure of the cold weather policy, but I did some investigating and found that they don’t ever cancel school because of the the cold. It has to be something else like high winds or dangerous driving conditions for them to cancel school, but they won’t cancel simply because of the temperature. The coldest I have seen since I have been here is -56*. The record cold is -61*F, without windchill.
The only time they’ve ever closed school is when the ice fog is so thick the bus drivers can’t drive carefully or if it warms up too much and the roads turn to ice. School has been cancelled for 40* above weather, not -40*. And, to keep the pipes warm at -40* we open our cupboard doors under the sinks, just to be safe.