Not So Frigid Alaska
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Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. Single digit temperatures make the front-page news, in the lower 48 anyway. But some folks in Alaska, like pilots, don't even think about the cold until it's 40 below. Weather Notebook correspondent Amy Mayer tells us about it.

Winter temps can be as low as -40, but the wonderfully long, over twenty hours of sun, summer days are in the 70's and 80's.

"The intense cold doesn't change daily life much for most people. There are a few exceptions. Forty below is a magic number for the planes that bring people, mail and supplies to remote villages. Fred Ciarlo is the general manager of Tanana Air Service:

'At 39 below our flaps, which are mechanically operated, and our other systems seem to work fine. But when it gets 40 below or colder the greases or everything else just sort of freezes up and it's very hard on the aircraft and you get, it's a situation where, are you survivable if you land?'

Ciarlo says that's not a risk worth taking. But that doesn't mean you can't go outside at all during a cold snap. Celia Hunter has lived in Fairbanks over 50 years:

'Really, it's nice to get out and walk in this temperature. You can do it. You know it sounds like your going to freeze up solid but if you have enough warm gear on, why you're fine.'

Young school kids in Fairbanks do get a break, though. When the temperature is below minus 20, they don't go out for recess. But the schools only close when the dense ice fog makes driving unsafe. In the last 25 years, schools only been cancelled on 4 days. Teacher Karen Shields says the extreme winters just make life in her hometown more challenging:

'It adds to the pioneer flavor of living in Alaska, I guess, you know, it gives a sense of being hardy and hale.'

Even so, when the temperature gets back up toward zero, most Fairbanksans are happy for the warmth."

Amy Mayer comes to us from KUAC in Fairbanks. The Weather Notebook is funded by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive.