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New Englanders are used to this saying: if you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it'll change. Well, on the other side of the country, --deep in Alaska's interior, you can be waiting a lot longer, for days on end in both summer and winter. Correspondent Amy Mayer reports.

Meteorologist Ted Fathauer says jet stream winds cause fickle weather in the middle latitudes. But it's rare for them to reach us.

We can see that here. It's not a frequent occurrence. Normally, the changes here are kind of slow and subtle.

In summer, that can mean temperatures creep up over 80 and hang out there for a while. In 1918 the temperature was 80 degrees or warmer for 17 straight days and 1991 saw two solid weeks of temps in the 80s. But Fathauer says those are extreme examples.

It's very difficult to have a span of 80 degree or warmer days in Fairbanks longer than a week.

While high temps can be lovely for people, Alaska sled dogs aren't used to the heat. (begin ambient dog barking sounds) David van den Berg has 10 dogs in his yard. He says they respond differently to the summer weather.

I have some dogs that will stay in their houses no matter what the weather, cold, hot, rainy, sunny. Others dogs seem to avail of the cool earth and they'll get out and lay, and you know they'll kind of follow the shadows around and lay on the ground all day long. But the number one thing is they can drink their weight in water, it seems.

Our heat waves pale next to Phoenix or Dallas, and Juneau and Seattle are known for much more rain. But with winters that can offer up to 3 weeks of 40 below, a cool, soggy summer here can really hurt. 15 of the last 98 summers saw rain spells lasting eight days or more ­ last year we had a 6-day spell, among others. But Fathauer says Fairbanksans can't let the rain get them down.

It's a matter of attitude. Rainy days can be beautiful.

That's meteorologist Ted Fathauer. And I'm Amy Mayer in Fairbanks. The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory where the fastest wind was ever recorded-a 231 miles per hour. For more info on windspeed and other weather nuggets, go to our website: www.mountwashington.org. And thanks for the generous support of Subaru.