layla | This is such a strange place

And now all of a sudden, it's summer. It was 67 degrees today and it's supposed to be 75 on Thursday. Of course, we had 3 feet of snow at the end of last week, and while it's melting its little heart out, there is only so much that thermodynamics can do under the circumstances. The long and the short of it is that it's 70 degrees and there's still quite a lot of snow on the ground. So you can run around in a T-shirt and shorts in the snow and be perfectly comfortable. Also, there is not a single green thing out yet -- about the closest we have are pussy willows; all else is dead and brown. All the trees know better than to start with the leaves; it may not be freezing at night right now, but we will definitely have more frosts before winter gives up entirely.

We got our first rain this weekend -- a very light misting, but still a reminder of a kinder, gentler time of year.

I also noticed something bizarre this weekend ... you know how a cold drink with ice cubes in it will normally frost up the glass? Well, Fairbanks is TOO DRY. The glass gets quite cold, but it does not get wet. There simply isn't enough moisture in the air.

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I also noticed something bizarre this weekend ... you know how a cold drink with ice cubes in it will normally frost up the glass? Well, Fairbanks is TOO DRY. The glass gets quite cold, but it does not get wet. There simply isn't enough moisture in the air.

Oh yeah, my *other* gripe with Alaska: the dryness when it's cold. More specifically, the static electricity that is revealed by the dryness. I'd go walking down the hallway tapping every doorhandle I passed to gradually discharge myself so I didn't get that massive shock when I reached for the door I wanted. And my hair didn't like it either. ;-)

-Sarah D in CA

Wierdest run-in I had with weather was that ice storm back in, oh, what, 1999, 2000? I don't know if you were in IL for that one... but I remember the day when it hit...

I went to work at the local video store wearing a t-shirt and baggy shorts, being that it was a deliciously 71 degrees that morning...

By three o'clock, it had dropped to 45.

By five, snow was now falling at a brisk pace.

By 1 am, the warm ground combined with the melting-then freezing snow built up a layer a foot high in some areas. Power was out over 85% of the affected area for days, with hundreds of power lines snapping from the weight of the ice. One of the fastest, freakiest storms ever to hit Illinois.

And this was MAY.

Ahhh yes, the static electricity. I had a co-worker at the paper who killed two keyboards and a computer monitor with electrical discharges. I have a habit of lightly tapping a metal object (e.g. doorknobs) with the back of my hand before grasping it, the idea being that the back of the hand is less sensitive and it hurts less when it only contacts for a split second.

Never thought of trying to stay discharged, though. Did it work?

My skin is horribly dry, too.

WOW. Whatta load of fun! I must have missed it. I'm sure I'd remember.

Illinois weather is definitely bipolar. It'll be beautiful and sunny, and then two hours later, raining cats and dogs with tornados. It doesn't really do that here in Fairbanks ... the weather systems move in and out slowly, and it's rare to get what you might call extreme weather, aside from the severe cold in the winter. We don't usually have downpouring rain, windstorms, ice storms or the like. I've seen wild temperature swings in midwinter (say, from 40 below to 20 above in a couple of days) but it's a lot less dramatic when it goes from "damn cold" to just "cold".

The periodic-discharging strategy succeeded to this extent: by giving myself minor, non-painful shocks as I walked down the hallway, I saved myself from having a monster, light-up-the-corner-of-the-room-blue shock at the end. Another thing that works well, if you don't already know it, is to touch metal things with a piece of metal first, such as a car key (I used to shock myself on my car door all the time) or a paperclip. Apparently what hurts is the electricity leaving your body, and when it has something to flow through before it makes the jump (such as a key or a paperclip), the shock doesn't hurt. The hard part is remembering to carry something metal around and to discharge before you grab metal stuff.

-SarahD in CA

This is such a strange place

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< No, Amelie, you need something bigger to dig out with.

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Re: < No, Amelie, you need something bigger to dig out with.

It worked OK