It's basically 50 below here. I'd say -48 degrees is close enough. Of course it's not quite that cold at my house as I'm a bit higher elevation than town (Fairbanks). The cold, as everywhere, clonks down into the lowest places and hits them the hardest. Folks in Eilson AFB and Fort Wainwright and in North Pole are probably easily at -50 and colder. It's -65 in Tok, AK.
The sky is so crispy it's likey to make your eyeballs crunchy. As I drive into town today I'll have to deal with ice fog and I'll lose that gorgeous sky. Driving home last night was tedious because of all the ice fog. Ice fog looks like regular fog when you are driving through it, but it's not. Here is where you can find out how we could possibly have fog when it's so dry right now that the dog has turned into a Static Monster! When you pet her, she crackles!
I must check the inflation of my tires and make sure that they aren't getting low. If they get too low they'll just lose the bead and go flat while I'm driving. I've got to watch out for broken belts, too. My clutch is hydraulic, and when it gets this cold it works okay if I am not driving over 40 mph. After that it stiffens up like a sonofagun and it takes muscle to push it in, and I have to wait for it to pop out and engage. So the drive into town is a slow one to keep that clutch from freezing up completely.
Don't slam your car door with your hand on the window in this weather. You might just end up with a handful of glass.
If you go outside with a cup of hot water and throw the water into the air, it vaporizes instantly.
Last night the northern lights were dancing up a storm! I stood outside in two 20-minute shifts with a warmup in between to see them. I've never seen them move quite that quickly, they were pulsating rivers of light, threads that spread across the sky, shimmering aqua curtains with red tinges swinging back and forth. There is no way to describe them adequately. There is no movie, no picture you will ever see that captures it. You'll just have to see them for yourself if you want to know what they are like.
Sofie and I will head into town in a while. I'm sure we'll have our invisible dog with us, too.
