The woodpile is melting

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Frostbit

Feeling the Heat
Aug 4, 2008
307
Northwest Arctic Alaska
Global warming?? Pfffft.

5 below zero this morning, and looking to stay near those temps all week. Last week we had our first blizzard of the season which brought a foot of snow. The woodpile is getting visited quite regularly. I wish I had a couple more cords put up. I'm gonna have to do the pallet scrounging here before too long. 'Sides, mixing the pallet hardwood with the spruce makes for a good moderately hot fire.

I see on the news several places in the State nearing minus 30 tonight, so I guess I should feel fortunate it isn't worse here.

I do know one thing: My cut-n-split stacks next fall are going to be 3 times what it was this year.
 
4 above here this morning. That's why a buddy is dropping off a 16 yard dump-truck's worth of free pine tomorrow. I'm not ready for this, damn the ski slopes.
 
Temps keep dropping here in Alaska.


39 degrees below zero in Fort Yukon this evening. Heck, its 26 below in Eagle River tonight just outside Anchorage. VERY unusual for there. It would be fun to drive through the neighborhoods there and see who's burning wood and how many smoke dragons are still in use.
 
We have been staying warm and above normal. Its 17F now and only dropping to 7 in the am.
I wish I could send ya some wood. Keep warm.
N of 60
 
Hey neighbor,

Went and looked at your weather earlier and saw you were warmer. Thought that this high pressure squatting on us was affecting you, too. Enjoy the balmy temps while they last. We both know your turn is coming sooner than later!

I'll make do on the wood. Heck, my neighbor won't notice the cedar boards missing from his garage wall that faces me, will he?
 
I've been watching your temps up in Alaska.....is this "normal" for you this time of year???
 
Hey Frost,

How big is your place and what other source of heat do you have? Stay warm up there...
 
I heard that Alaska (and the entire NW) had a 50% chance of being warmer than usual this winter and that Florida and the entire southeast had a 50% chance of being colder than usual. *shrug*
 
Frostbit, I've entertained the idea of living in Alaska at least through a year. If nothing else, just to experience your weather. Naturally on top of my list is seeing the northern lights from your viewpoint. We've seen some beautiful displays, especially in Michigan's U.P., but I'm certain it is nothing like what you people get.

We've had an unusually cool summer and it stayed cool into the fall but now we are experiencing a very warm spell. I see we are expected to get a shot of your air somewhere around Thanksgiving Day but still will be much warmer than you. Michigan is blessed with being surrounded (on 3 sides) with the Great Lakes. That has a tendency to moderate our temperatures (but also increases the humidity).

I agree on the bigger woodpile. Usually the bigger the better. We have about 7 years on hand right now.
 
derecskey said:
I heard that Alaska (and the entire NW) had a 50% chance of being warmer than usual this winter and that Florida and the entire southeast had a 50% chance of being colder than usual. *shrug*
Click to expand...

Since my sister has been in Alaska I've noticed that it often seems as though we end up getting different weather . . . if it's abnormally snowy where she is in Portage, we've ended up with a low to very low snow year . . . and conversely a couple years back when we got hammered she was reporting a low snow year there.
 
maybe the leer jet liberal al gore should come up and stay up there for a week or 2
he can watch the ice caps melt in his speedo lol
 
Backwoods Savage said:
Frostbit, I've entertained the idea of living in Alaska at least through a year. If nothing else, just to experience your weather. Naturally on top of my list is seeing the northern lights from your viewpoint. We've seen some beautiful displays, especially in Michigan's U.P., but I'm certain it is nothing like what you people get.

We've had an unusually cool summer and it stayed cool into the fall but now we are experiencing a very warm spell. I see we are expected to get a shot of your air somewhere around Thanksgiving Day but still will be much warmer than you. Michigan is blessed with being surrounded (on 3 sides) with the Great Lakes. That has a tendency to moderate our temperatures (but also increases the humidity).

I agree on the bigger woodpile. Usually the bigger the better. We have about 7 years on hand right now.
Click to expand...


Well, if your accustomed to Michigan winters, you'll find that Alaska's are no worse weather-wise, just longer....in some parts of the State. I suspect if you chose the right place in Alaska to stay a year, you may not head back. That hunch depends on where you settle, and whether things like few people, negligible traffic, spectacular views, etc., offset higher prices and weird daylight/darkness cycles. It ain't for everyone. I will tell ya this: For whatever reason there are a TON of Minnesota transplants up where I am, some have been here for decades, and they have no plan to go back. Most tell me Alaska reminds them of what Minnesota was like eons ago....and they like that. I can't relate since I was born here, and I have never been to Minnesota. If you wanna see the northern lights like nowhere else in the world, you need to be where its cold in the winter...that would be interior Alaska, somewhere in the proximity of Fairbanks. We get fair displays here when its below zero, but I've seen them in Fairbanks and its awe-inspiring.

Still getting indoctrinated on how much wood to keep stock of. I'm learning. There will be more next year!
 
Rob From Wisconsin said:
I've been watching your temps up in Alaska.....is this "normal" for you this time of year???
Click to expand...

Its normal where I live. It is much below normal for the southcentral part of the State (in and around Anchorage) for this time of year. Anchorage seldom gets below zero weather. The temps I have been quoting have been in this southcentral part of Alaska.

Alaska is so large and diverse, in the winter its very common to have 100 or more degree temp differences between any two points in the State, same day/same hour. Between November and February, it can be 50 degrees in Metlakatla (southeast) and 60 below at Chandalar Lake (northern interior). I specifically remember some years ago a day in January when it was 54 degrees on Annette Island (southeast) and 78 below zero in Snag (interior). That's a 132 degree temperature differential.

There is no such thing as "normal" weather in Alaska...at any time of the year. I've seen frost in July (28 degrees) where I live. Three days later, 91 degrees for a high.
 
I'm on a business trip in CO. Landed in Denver Monday and was greeted with a foot of snow from a weekend storm. I am staying at a Residence Inn in Colorado Springs and it has a Heat/Glo gas fireplace. I can feel heat if I sit right near the fireplace... oh well :) We had a low of 18 degrees overnight here. I haven't felt this cold since last Feb. I live in MA so I guess I am getting a preview of things to come east!
 
I was transplannted in Alaska from minnesota when i was 4 years old. in 1974.. and in Anchorage now and its been below 0F all week, i need to buy me some seasoned wood as i wasent that prepared this winter with my new install and only have about 1/2 cord ready... its anywhere from 200 to 300$ for ready to burn bcord of birch / spruce.. i maybe end up scrounging and pallets too since i am broke as a joke.
 
Wet1 said:
Hey Frost,

How big is your place and what other source of heat do you have? Stay warm up there...
Click to expand...


Single level ranch style home, 1300 square feet. Hydronic baseboard heat via Burnham LE low mass oil-fired boiler.
 
Frostbit said:
Hydronic baseboard heat via Burnham LE low mass oil-fired boiler.
Click to expand...

I love this place. You ask somebody on the street "what heats your house" and your gonna get "furnace, I think its a Bryant or something."

But not here. :lol:
 
Frostbit said:
Backwoods Savage said:
Frostbit, I've entertained the idea of living in Alaska at least through a year. If nothing else, just to experience your weather. Naturally on top of my list is seeing the northern lights from your viewpoint. We've seen some beautiful displays, especially in Michigan's U.P., but I'm certain it is nothing like what you people get.

We've had an unusually cool summer and it stayed cool into the fall but now we are experiencing a very warm spell. I see we are expected to get a shot of your air somewhere around Thanksgiving Day but still will be much warmer than you. Michigan is blessed with being surrounded (on 3 sides) with the Great Lakes. That has a tendency to moderate our temperatures (but also increases the humidity).

I agree on the bigger woodpile. Usually the bigger the better. We have about 7 years on hand right now.
Click to expand...


Well, if your accustomed to Michigan winters, you'll find that Alaska's are no worse weather-wise, just longer....in some parts of the State. I suspect if you chose the right place in Alaska to stay a year, you may not head back. That hunch depends on where you settle, and whether things like few people, negligible traffic, spectacular views, etc., offset higher prices and weird daylight/darkness cycles. It ain't for everyone. I will tell ya this: For whatever reason there are a TON of Minnesota transplants up where I am, some have been here for decades, and they have no plan to go back. Most tell me Alaska reminds them of what Minnesota was like eons ago....and they like that. I can't relate since I was born here, and I have never been to Minnesota. If you wanna see the northern lights like nowhere else in the world, you need to be where its cold in the winter...that would be interior Alaska, somewhere in the proximity of Fairbanks. We get fair displays here when its below zero, but I've seen them in Fairbanks and its awe-inspiring.

Still getting indoctrinated on how much wood to keep stock of. I'm learning. There will be more next year!
Click to expand...

I also noticed when we visited Alaska how many came from MN and also from MI. I was offered a couple jobs when I was there and came very close to staying then. Have thought about that ever since. The biggest thing that would draw me is the wilderness.
 
greythorn3 said:
I was transplannted in Alaska from minnesota when i was 4 years old. in 1974.. and in Anchorage now and its been below 0F all week, i need to buy me some seasoned wood as i wasent that prepared this winter with my new install and only have about 1/2 cord ready... its anywhere from 200 to 300$ for ready to burn bcord of birch / spruce.. i maybe end up scrounging and pallets too since i am broke as a joke.
Click to expand...

HehHeh . . . was talking with my sister who lives in Portage on Tuesday night . . . she said folks there had predicted the El Nino effect would mean a warmer winter and more so . . . at the time she called it was -5 degrees and she had just come back from work, hauling water for their camp and getting their woodstove going . . . she was none too impressed with the prediction of a warmer winter.

The good news is she is planning to come visit me in another two weeks so she'll be able to escape to a warmer climate for a bit. ;)
 
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