Life in Alaska

[AKwelder]

14 hours ago, Cool1566 said:

You have to work in that???!!

I would call in sick….

lol.  We try not to, but you still need to get to the shop

[TroyDairy]

2 hours ago, AKwelder said:

lol.  We try not to, but you still need to get to the shop

Work needs to be done.  So you do the work.

[Cool1566]

I have the utmost respect for all of you guys that brave the frozen tundra above the Mason/Dixon Line. I am not a cold weather person nor do I want to become one.

Hats off to you AK! 

[AKwelder]

A bit of a picture dump

Cold yesterday 

 

Navistar testing trucks

 

Fuel on the north slope

 

daylight above the arctic circle

 

[AKwelder]

Today, cold and a storm headed this way they claim

Notice There is no wind

 

we start gaining daylight today

 

[New Englander]

Ours presently rise at 07:12, set at 16:11. Crew changes in ANC at the were never as bad as you're getting now.Worst I ever experienced was Nome in December for a trip to Phuket, had mostly clothes for Thailand and froze my butt off in the Alaska Airlines Combi, in the hotel, walking to the restaurant, etc. Arrived in the dark and left in the dark. You guys are made of stronger stuff.

[hardtail]

2 hours ago, New Englander said:

Ours presently rise at 07:12, set at 16:11. Crew changes in ANC at the were never as bad as you're getting now.Worst I ever experienced was Nome in December for a trip to Phuket, had mostly clothes for Thailand and froze my butt off in the Alaska Airlines Combi, in the hotel, walking to the restaurant, etc. Arrived in the dark and left in the dark. You guys are made of stronger stuff.

And smarter😁

[New Englander]

23 minutes ago, hardtail said:

And smarter😁

Ha😄, well, at least more cold tolerant.

[AKwelder]

Been a real cold December, and part of November too

 

driving at -40 the exhaust and other moisture makes ice fog that really limit visibility 

 

was much worse in places

 

local colledge building has sign

 

no wind at all

[Cool1566]

6 hours ago, AKwelder said:

Been a real cold December, and part of November too

 

driving at -40 the exhaust and other moisture makes ice fog that really limit visibility 

 

was much worse in places

 

local colledge building has sign

 

no wind at all

That is crazy cold! I have no comprehension of just how bad that is.  You are tough!

[Cattech]

I do believe, if I ever pop in for a visit up your way, it will be during one of the warmer months.

[New Englander]

Surprisingly the temperatures aloft over the North Atlantic can be much warmer than standard. Normally above the Tropopause the temp is -57+/- and is stable in the Stratosphere. Sometimes the temp can be as warm as -45c or so which limits your altitude in some cases. Anyway Landing at Frobisher Bay/ Iqaluit was the only place I've ever been where it was nearly as cold on the ground as it was at 37,000'.

If anyone is interested the Tropopause or the boundary between the Troposphere and Stratosphere is much higher near the Equator so it keeps getting colder as you climb. -70c is common so we could climb to 47,000 to top or at least circumnavigate the huge thunderstorms that build. 

[AKwelder]

16 hours ago, Cool1566 said:

That is crazy cold! I have no comprehension of just how bad that is.  You are tough!

I don’t know about that, because I melt in the heat.  You get used to it I guess

[AKwelder]

Now they are forecasting colder temperatures, and even mentioning 60 below

 

 

No wind, 60 below the hard way

[Cool1566]

That is unreal!

[AKwelder]

Here it comes

 

 

[hardtail]

-56C was the coldest I ever experienced here, for the southern folk I suggest you try it at least once in your lifetime any simple job outside can immediately go sideways that takes double to triple the time or you struggle to recover from. I would feel the same discomfort visiting the South in the summer heat and humidity.

One thing is engineering everything, building materials, equipment etc has to function from -40 to plus 40, i don't think a lot of places on earth have these extremes, I was watching an old Caterpillar video where they sent new equipment to the arctic and the metallurgy changed and steel shattered rendering the new whatever useless until they figured it out.

[New Englander]

Airplanes regularly endure the extremes - +50c in Saudi to -70 at altitude. Aluminum doesn't seem to care much. There's also heating associated with the friction of moving through even the thin air at altitude or Ram rise. TAT or Total Air Temp is what then the airplane feels while SAT  or Static Air Temp is the actual outside air temperature. There are formulas to figure what it should be based upon true airspeed  but we could just read it. We would typically see more than 40c rise in cruise. Of course it becomes way more of an issue for supersonic craft especially SR71 types where aluminum won't cut it and titanium is needed.  

There, more useless information you never needed to know that I decided to share😁.

[AKwelder]

21 hours ago, hardtail said:

-56C was the coldest I ever experienced here, for the southern folk I suggest you try it at least once in your lifetime any simple job outside can immediately go sideways that takes double to triple the time or you struggle to recover from. I would feel the same discomfort visiting the South in the summer heat and humidity.

One thing is engineering everything, building materials, equipment etc has to function from -40 to plus 40, i don't think a lot of places on earth have these extremes, I was watching an old Caterpillar video where they sent new equipment to the arctic and the metallurgy changed and steel shattered rendering the new whatever useless until they figured it out.

Lots of things are not working as they should around here this weekend. A garage/shop is a wonderful thing.

 

 

The cold is sure testing things. Lots of people have postponed maintenance or been unaware of the need for routine maintenance and it’s showing at these temps. Cars are froze up or breaking down.  Water lines that were poorly installed are freezing, boilers that were not done correctly and serviced are not keeping homes warm, blanket building plans have installed heating systems on businesses that are not working.

Mother Nature does not care

[AKwelder]

It has been brutally cold, and completely calm. 
 

The airport recorded -50

 

the haze is from ice fog

 

[Wes806]

6 minutes ago, AKwelder said:

It has been brutally cold, and completely calm. 
 

The airport recorded -50

 

the haze is from ice fog

 

That's got to feel cold. Sure wouldn't want to be out on it for very long.

[arizonian]

I've worked in the Nome area twice. First time was early fall just before freeze-up. Being from the south, I was always cold. The second time was in the late fall/early winter when all the gold dredging was coming to a halt. We thought we were prepared with insulated Carharts and bunny boots until the day we took a helicopter ride to the dredge. I still froze my hash off.

[Cool1566]

11 hours ago, AKwelder said:

It has been brutally cold, and completely calm. 
 

The airport recorded -50

 

the haze is from ice fog

 

This just blows my mind.  How can anything survive or function? Even without the wind blowing I can only imagine what wouldn’t work correctly.

[AKwelder]

13 hours ago, Cool1566 said:

This just blows my mind.  How can anything survive or function? Even without the wind blowing I can only imagine what wouldn’t work correctly.

Lots of manufacturers are here cold weather testing. Navistar has been in town for years running trucks, all the car manufacturers seem to run around and try their tech.  

[AKwelder]

Weather broke yesterday and the clouds rolled in (high pressure systems with no cloud cover are when we get cold snaps)

 

Only -10 this morning