C O L D in Alaska

[kaima]

-79F is -62C, according to one on line chart ....

Batteries are dependent upon chemical reaction, which shows down at cold temperatures, so we can easily understand why the battery failed! I think at that temperature I would stop working as well.





Thermometer dies at Haul Road camp as it nears US record low

Published: January 31st, 2012 03:40 PM
Last Modified: January 31st, 2012 03:41 PM

We'll just never know, it seems. A thermometer at a state road maintenance camp along the Dalton Highway was approaching the U.S. low temperature record of minus 80 on Saturday when it croaked. The amateur-operated thermometer at the Jim River camp, about 140 miles south of Deadhorse, was reading minus 79 when the battery apparently gave out.


But it turns out there's plenty of reason to doubt the accuracy of the minus-79 reading. For one thing, the thermometer in use isn't rated accurate below minus 40. Satellite readings indicate temperatures in the vicinity were several degrees higher. The National Weather Service is calling the reading "unrealistically low." But an AccuWeather blog explores reasons why the temperature might have been accurate.

The Jim River camp is just a mile from the Prospect Creek Airport, which holds the official minus-80 low-temperature record for the U.S.

In any case, the low temperature at Jim River is unlikely to have broken the official North American record, minus 81 set at Snag, Yukon, in 1947.

Here's a graphic showing official low temperatures observed over the weekend in Interior Alaska. The Washington Post's Weather Gang has a convenient wrap-up of Alaska weather from the cold snap.

For any weather fanatics, some Links:

www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/was-us-record-low-temperature-of-80-broken-in-alaska/60951

wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/30/bitter-cold-records-broken-in-alaska-all-time-coldest-record-nearly-broken-but-murphys-law-intervenes/

community.adn.com/?q=adn/node/159573

Coldest January on record for parts of Alaska
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/coldest-january-on-record-for-parts-of-alaska/2012/01/31/gIQAQVyIfQ_blog.html

[kaima]

We are not alone in the Cold;

Dozens of people have been killed so far as a high pressure system from Siberia holds much of Europe in its icy grip. The cold front has been named "Cooper" in Germany, after the Mini Cooper compact. The company's advertising agency having paid 299 euros to sponsor it.
Info

A brutal cold weather front bringing freezing temperatures across Eastern and Central Europe -- one which has resulted in dozens of deaths so far -- hardly seems like ideal marketing material. But one advertising agency has risked a frosty reception from its client by linking their product to the current high pressure weather system causing the frigid conditions. The weather system has been dubbed Cooper, named after the Mini Cooper, a car made by Mini Deutschland.

And there's more to come -- at some point in the future, a low pressure front will be dubbed Minnie. But only after Julia, Katarzyna and Lucina, of course.

The names were requested by the Sassenbach advertising agency in Munich, where Mini's parent company BMW is based, according to Paul Heger from the Institute for Meteorology at the Free University (FU) in Berlin. The institute runs an "Adopt-a-Vortex" scheme, whereby the public can become "weather Godfathers" by giving a name to high and low pressure systems.

It's a simple process -- you can go online and sponsor a high for €299 ($394) or a low for €199 ($262), with the difference in price due to the fact that high pressure systems stay on the weather map for longer. The sponsor puts forward a name which must be acknowledged by the German registry office as an acceptable first name. Hyphenated names and special characters (barring German umlauts) are banned. That means company or product names are only accepted if they are also first names, as is the case with Minnie and Cooper. The sponsor also receives detailed material, including weather maps, charting the "life story" of the weather system.

Adopt-a-Vertex has been running since 2002, and the money raised helps fund weather monitoring carried out by meteorology students at the FU. The institute is the only one outside the US which names weather systems, and has been doing so since 1954.

A "Wind- and Weather-Proof Idea"

Highs are given male names and lows female names in even years, and vice versa in odd years. Each year sees 50 to 60 highs and around 150 lows.

Ironically, Sassenbach sponsored the fronts in honor of the softtop Mini Roadster -- although reports of convertibles being driven around with the top down have been hard to come by during the current Cooper system. The agency said it had wanted a "wind- and weather-proof idea" and encouraged visitors to its website to follow Cooper's "beautiful weather" online.

But the thousands of people suffering in the freezing conditions across Europe would probably use words other than beautiful to describe the weather, with temperatures in some places plunging to minus 33 degrees Celsius. Numerous deaths have been reported in Ukraine and Poland, in addition to victims in Serbia and Bulgaria. The weather, which has blown eastwards from Siberia, where temperatures have sunk as low as minus 45 degrees Celsius, is expected to remain largely unchanged for the rest of the week.

"The high point of the cold weather is likely to be reached on Friday," meteorologist Thomas Ruppert from the German Meteorological Service (DWD), told the German news agency DPA.

Dozens of Deaths Across Europe

The cold snap has claimed at least 30 victims in Ukraine in the past five days, according to the Emergencies Ministry in Kiev. Another 500 people have been treated in hospital for frostbite and other injuries relating to the cold in what has been Ukraine's coldest winter in six years. Some 1,600 centers have been set up to provide make-shift accommodation and dispense food and drinks for homeless people.

At least 10 people have frozen to death in Poland since the weekend, with five victims on Monday night alone according to the country's Interior Ministry. In addition, at least four people have frozen to death in the Baltic States.

"We are dealing with a winter of extremes; first Mediterranean flair with weeks of frost-free nights, and now the sudden change to Arctic conditions," another DWD meteorologist, Jurik Müller, told DPA. "Such weather conditions occur every 20 to 30 years."

dsk -- with wire reports



Ice fog as I remember it, but not too thick ...

[Eric]

I heard on The Weather Channel that the –79° should be disregarded; the National Weather Service doesn't consider it to be accurate.

That said... it's been a cold, cold month up in Alaska, and I do not want to be anywhere near that state right now!

[Nictoshek]

City and Borough of Juneau Avalanche Forecaster Tom Mattice watches as Department of Transportation crews clear snow from a natural avalanche at Snow Gulch Creek along Thane Road on Thursday.

More than 12 avalanches fall in Juneau

Thane Road is open again after slide shut it down Thursday

Posted: February 2, 2012

By EMILY RUSSO MILLER
JUNEAU EMPIRE

There have been more than a dozen reported natural avalanches around Juneau in the past 24 hours, and avalanche danger still remains high, according to a city official.

“Avalanche danger is high at this time and will remain high for the next 48 hours, even though some paths have shed,” City and Borough of Juneau Avalanche Forecaster Tom Mattice stated in an urban avalanche advisory.

No injuries or damages have been reported in any of the slides, which began Wednesday afternoon. The first avalanche reported was on Sunshine Path up the Perseverance trail basin. Berhends Path above Berhands Avenue was reportedly the next to go around 4 p.m. The Berhends avalanche probably had the most mass of the dozen, Mattice said. It stopped below Judy Avenue and above Troy Avenue, and stayed north of the closed road gates without affecting any residents.

“Everything’s stopping short of structures and houses which is good,” Mattice said in a phone interview.

Mt. Juneau’s Bathe Creek Path near the Cope Park area also saw an avalanche around that time.

White Path just north of Wickersham Avenue slid either Wednesday night or Thursday morning, and another avalanche large enough to reach the tide line ripped down the side of Mount Roberts and across Thane Road at midnight, blocking all traffic.

A Department of Transportation & Public Facilities crew cleared the road by 4:30 p.m. Thursday, and it is now back open to the public. Exact figures on the depth and width of the Thane Road avalanche were not available, but Mattice guessed it was about 20 feet deep and about 100 to 150 yards wide.

Another eight to nine avalanches slid on Thursday morning.

Mattice said this series of avalanches was nothing out of the ordinary and was probably caused by a brief spike in warmer temperatures midday Wednesday, on top of recent snowfall, rain and high winds.

“The combination of these events was enough to lead us into a direct action avalanche cycle,” he said. “The snowpack had reached maximum load capacity and the direct affect of the new snow, warming, and wind kicked off a natural avalanche cycle.”

When temperatures rise above freezing, Mattice says it loosens “the glue” that holds the snowpack together. Or, to use a metaphor, “When it goes above freezing, its turns the ice cube into a Slurpee, and things move a lot easier.”

The high avalanche danger advisory is to remain in effect until 7 p.m. Friday since more avalanches are expected. A high wind warning issued by the National Weather Service remains in effect until Friday afternoon. It calls for gusts of wind up to 60 mph, and perhaps higher along coastlines.

“The greatest indicator of avalanches is other avalanches,” he said.

A joint release from the city and the U.S. Forest Service urged people to avoid traveling in avalanche prone areas, the backcountry and trails for the next 48 hours. Areas of note include, but are not limited to, the Flume, Perseverance, Mount Roberts, Mount Juneau, Dan Moller and Dupont trails.

“Backcountry danger is also quite high!” Mattice wrote in the advisory. “I don’t think you would find me skiing in the backcountry today folks... Take a day to hide away ... and live to ski another day.”

For current avalanche conditions and additional information, go online to juneau.org/avalanche.