100-degree swings? Just another week in Fairbanks!

Here I am sitting in my car on the way back from the gym, driving through what could charitably be called the "heart" of downtown Fairbanks, Alaska.
The gravel's crunching under my wheels, the sun's shining with just a few hopeful wisps of clouds in the sky and the hills in the distance are in their usual snow-covered glory. It's the type of day that warms the soul and usually chills you right to your bones.
Except ... instead of wearing a parka, I'm cruising through town in shorts with my window down. It's the middle of February and it's 50 degrees out. Above zero!
I'm not sure there are words to explain just how incredible this is.
Not that long ago, maybe a week or so, we were mired in the worst cold snap since 2000, with temperatures reaching down to 50 below. And this was something like a 3-week long cold snap. Now I'm in shorts?
The pile of ice in my car that spends all winter by my feet is gone. The frost that caked the INSIDE of my door? Gone as well. The snow's melting off my roof.
It's glorious.
Sure it will make the next cold snap, which is sure to come, so much worse. But right now, life is amazing.
Just need to share this with as many people as possible because, well, I'm used to trudging through winter, counting down the days until April. This is a very nice change of pace.
Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, this is a record high.
HUZZAH!

 

Amraeder celebrates the arrival of spring in Alaska.

 

Hahaha, SC, yeah, it's something like that. I really think they should just say "Screw putting out the paper, we're giving you all the day off to enjoy this weather."



Probably won't happen though, huh?

 

We had a close to a 60 degree swing a coupla weeks ago. They still made us work. Totally unfair.

 

Totally unfair. How am I going to turn into a bronze god if they don't let me go out and sunbathe in this stuff? Really, it's the ladies of Fairbanks who are suffering by their cruelty.

 

You'll just have to catch up when the days get super long up there. The ladies need your bronzed Godness!

 

It's 80 degrees here today. Hell, I went golfing on Jan. 2.
But that is a crazy temperature swing. I thought our 60 degree ones were crazy, but 100 degrees is just nuts.

 

I don't know enough about the rest of the US to be sure this is true, but I figure we've got to have some of the biggest climate shifts of anywhere.
It can bottom out at -60 in the winter can get up into the 90s in the summer.
The wonders of being near no temperature stabilizing bodies of water, I guess.

 

Who would have thought it was warmer in Alaska than the upper midwest? It was -34 in parts of my state this morning (wind chill) and -13 real temps.