What's comfortable is Relative

4 January 2012
7:16 PM

Sunrise at	10:50 AM	in direction	151°	South-southeast
Sunset at	3:01 PM	in direction	209°	South-southwest

Duration of day: 4 hours, 11 minutes (3 minutes, 56 seconds longer than yesterday)

Main quad of lower campus

The weather broke sometime between 11:00 last night and early this morning.  By that I mean,  instead of -42F at the Airport or Ft. Wainwright it is now -24F.  And instead of -36F on our deck, it is now -20F.  This may sound strange for readers who do no live in Alaska (and perhaps even those who do live in the state, but not in the Interior), but -42F with no wind is tolerable with good clothing for prolonged periods of time, and -20F is downright comfortable.

Notice I said, "no wind".  There are three areas listed for temperature readings in the Middle Tanana Valley:  the airport, Ft.Wainwright, and Eielson Air Base.  When I checked the temperature before starting today's post, two of those show a wind reading of "Calm" and one has an imperceptible breeze of 3SE.   It's the lack of wind that makes the deep cold of the Alaskan Interior more hospitable for human beings than the temperatures readings suggest.  Some will tell you they prefer our deep cold to the biting wind of Seattle or San Francisco.  I won't go that far, but you can accurately gauge how to dress by the temperature because you are not taking wind chill into account.

When I step outdoors at anything below -30F, I can feel the bite.  I am less likely to dawdle and I pay strict attention to my extremities. Warm gloves are a necessity for me so I don't have old frost bite sections of my fingers turn white and become numb.  As the temperature drops, there is a point, where I don't "feel" the difference in cold.  My perception of "very, very cold" remains constant.  What changes is how long I am comfortable at that temperature.  That is the best way I know how to gauge it without a thermometer.  Walking outside, warmly dressed at -30F I may not feel compelled to cover my face at all, but the lower it goes, my skin begins to burn and I find myself, wrapping the scarf up over my nose, leaving only my eyes open to the air.

Today was good walking weather.  A brisk walk is quite fine at this temperature.  Sitting in a cold car, however, is not nearly as fine and I wished - again - that we had a remote starter for our car.  When I first moved here in 2006, they were just catching on.  In fact, our friend Vera was thrilled to get one for Christmas from my daughter and son-in-law.  Now it seems ours is one of few cars not idly away, waiting for the arrival of its owner to open the door to a warm car.

It didn't take too long for the car to warm. By the time Gary came out from the music building, it had been running for about five minutes and no longer was uncomfortable - not warm, you understand, but not uncomfortable.  It's the sitting that makes it more miserable.  Even the leather seats take a while to heat and the steering wheel is cold plastic that remains cold for a full 20 minutes.  These little complaints are a fact of life here.  We adjust.