My story and it can't compete with everyone else is -20 as a 3 week high when I left Alaska. During my stay I slept outside in -30 and moose hunted at -55. My bragging point was 9.2 That was the big one in Anchorage.
Leonard
Oh, Merry Christmas. We had a balmy -15 here last night.
Christmas, New Years and Such
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Geowizard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
Once upon a prior lifetime, I was in the U.S. Air Force.
After completing Technical training in Biloxi, Mississippi, I requested Alaska for my next assignment. I was sent to Eielson AFB arriving in January, 1969. It was officially -60 degrees F. The base was heated by steam. Buildings were connected by underground tunnels which carried steam piping. The KC-135 Air Tankers were ear-piercing when they took off because the air was so dense. Ice Fog formed and you could stir the ice crystals and hear the tinkle-tinkle sound of the crystals. In January 1971, I drove my Rambler Station wagon in the winter darkness and -60F temperatures down the Richardson Highway to Glennallen and down the Glenn highway for reassignment at what was then called Elmendorf AFB, near Anchorage.
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cit ... mperatures
It had only been that cold once or twice in the prior 30-40 years and it has never been colder since.
While stationed at Eielson, I lived at North Pole about a block from Santa's House!
I know there really is a Santa Claus because I actually seen him and heard him!
Ho... Ho... Ho... Merry Christmas!
- Geowizard
After completing Technical training in Biloxi, Mississippi, I requested Alaska for my next assignment. I was sent to Eielson AFB arriving in January, 1969. It was officially -60 degrees F. The base was heated by steam. Buildings were connected by underground tunnels which carried steam piping. The KC-135 Air Tankers were ear-piercing when they took off because the air was so dense. Ice Fog formed and you could stir the ice crystals and hear the tinkle-tinkle sound of the crystals. In January 1971, I drove my Rambler Station wagon in the winter darkness and -60F temperatures down the Richardson Highway to Glennallen and down the Glenn highway for reassignment at what was then called Elmendorf AFB, near Anchorage.
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cit ... mperatures
It had only been that cold once or twice in the prior 30-40 years and it has never been colder since.
While stationed at Eielson, I lived at North Pole about a block from Santa's House!
I know there really is a Santa Claus because I actually seen him and heard him!
Ho... Ho... Ho... Merry Christmas!
- Geowizard
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Leonard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
I was stationed at Elmendorf in 62 - 64 after I left Biloxi for electronics training. We didn't have KC135's' We had B47's loaded with Nukes.
Leonard
Leonard
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Geowizard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
Leonard,
Wow! That's interesting. The KC-135's were under Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Eielson. They refueled fighter jets over North Vietnam. Elmendorf had RB-57's, T33's, C-130's, F-4 Phantoms and Rescue Helicopters.
The RB57: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-57_Canberra
"The United States' all-time record lowest temperature is about where you'd expect it to be: Alaska, the now mostly-abandoned settlement of Prospect Creek, where it got down to -62.2°C one fine January morning in 1971."
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather- ... oldest.php
Happy Holidays!
- Geowizard
Wow! That's interesting. The KC-135's were under Strategic Air Command (SAC) at Eielson. They refueled fighter jets over North Vietnam. Elmendorf had RB-57's, T33's, C-130's, F-4 Phantoms and Rescue Helicopters.
The RB57: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_B-57_Canberra
"The United States' all-time record lowest temperature is about where you'd expect it to be: Alaska, the now mostly-abandoned settlement of Prospect Creek, where it got down to -62.2°C one fine January morning in 1971."
https://www.currentresults.com/Weather- ... oldest.php
Happy Holidays!
- Geowizard
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Leonard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
The B-47's were on rotation from Davis Monthan out of Arizona. I was in SAC and worked on computers in the SAC Command Post from 62 - 64.
Just to keep this on-topic, I slept out under the stars one night in a mummy bag when it was 30 below. The Northern Lights were really doing their thing and you could actually hear them "swishing"
Leonard
Just to keep this on-topic, I slept out under the stars one night in a mummy bag when it was 30 below. The Northern Lights were really doing their thing and you could actually hear them "swishing"
Leonard
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Geowizard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
Leonard,
That's awesome! Computers back then filled a room! ENIAC and UNIVAC come to mind. Before I went in the USAF, I came across a surplus electronics outlet and picked up a few of the first "transistorized" plug in "flip flops". That was the winter of 1968-1969. My fondest memories are winters in Eastern Oregon as a High Schooler with an attic electronics "Radio Shack" from where I had a 50 foot long wire "aerial" antenna strung from the attic window across my mother's garden. On winter's nights, I listened to the "Voice of America", HCJB - in Quito Ecuador, Radio South Africa from my cozy Radio Shack. Short Wave listening was my hobby. It was a much different world then.
Probably about the same time ('64-'65) you were listening to the "swishing" Northern Lights!
Fifty years later, I push on - into the frontier of electronics surrounded by computers and writing high-level Windows software, graphing Geophysical Survey data exploring for GOLD in Alaska.
- Geowizard
That's awesome! Computers back then filled a room! ENIAC and UNIVAC come to mind. Before I went in the USAF, I came across a surplus electronics outlet and picked up a few of the first "transistorized" plug in "flip flops". That was the winter of 1968-1969. My fondest memories are winters in Eastern Oregon as a High Schooler with an attic electronics "Radio Shack" from where I had a 50 foot long wire "aerial" antenna strung from the attic window across my mother's garden. On winter's nights, I listened to the "Voice of America", HCJB - in Quito Ecuador, Radio South Africa from my cozy Radio Shack. Short Wave listening was my hobby. It was a much different world then.
Probably about the same time ('64-'65) you were listening to the "swishing" Northern Lights!
Fifty years later, I push on - into the frontier of electronics surrounded by computers and writing high-level Windows software, graphing Geophysical Survey data exploring for GOLD in Alaska.
- Geowizard
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Jim_Alaska
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
When following this thread I got to wondering about the temperatures listed. I am not sure where these temps came from, but I do know one thing. The official all time low temp. was recorded at Prospect Creek Alaska in 1971. Here is what I found online about that record.
"Alaska is famously freezing. However, the coldest it's ever been was -80° on Jan. 23, 1971. The frigid figure was recorded in Prospect Creek at an elevation of about 955 feet, making it the coldest temperature ever documented in the U.S."
What got me to researching this was my personal experience with this temperature. That experience is that I was there when it was set. This was during the days when the Alaska Pipeline was being built; I was doing glass work as a sub-contractor. The workers at Prospect Creek pipeline camp found out about the record because camp management had to send the camp thermometer to the National Weather Service for verification of accuracy.
I lived in Alaska for 37 years and have never felt anything as cold as that in all that time. It is just about impossible to describe what that felt like; but as an "aside" I will relate my experience that morning.
Most of my glass work was done out on the pipeline pad, putting glass in vehicles and heavy equipment. I got in my glass truck to start it and warm it up, which everyone has to do at low temps in Alaska. The truck was a 65 Chevy 1/2 ton with a manual trans. I pushed the clutch in to shift into neutral.
Nope, the shift lever wouldn't move. I Not only that, but the clutch just stayed pushed in to the floor. The truck had not been fully winterized other than just checking anti-freeze and putting in lighter weight oil and freeze plug heaters. Consequently, the camp mechanics had to drag the truck to their shop with a front end loader to thaw it out. I say they dragged it because the wheels wouldn't turn, it still had normal grade grease in both wheel bearings and differential.
Needless to say, I didn't get much glass work done that day. 
"Alaska is famously freezing. However, the coldest it's ever been was -80° on Jan. 23, 1971. The frigid figure was recorded in Prospect Creek at an elevation of about 955 feet, making it the coldest temperature ever documented in the U.S."
What got me to researching this was my personal experience with this temperature. That experience is that I was there when it was set. This was during the days when the Alaska Pipeline was being built; I was doing glass work as a sub-contractor. The workers at Prospect Creek pipeline camp found out about the record because camp management had to send the camp thermometer to the National Weather Service for verification of accuracy.
I lived in Alaska for 37 years and have never felt anything as cold as that in all that time. It is just about impossible to describe what that felt like; but as an "aside" I will relate my experience that morning.
Most of my glass work was done out on the pipeline pad, putting glass in vehicles and heavy equipment. I got in my glass truck to start it and warm it up, which everyone has to do at low temps in Alaska. The truck was a 65 Chevy 1/2 ton with a manual trans. I pushed the clutch in to shift into neutral.
Nope, the shift lever wouldn't move. I Not only that, but the clutch just stayed pushed in to the floor. The truck had not been fully winterized other than just checking anti-freeze and putting in lighter weight oil and freeze plug heaters. Consequently, the camp mechanics had to drag the truck to their shop with a front end loader to thaw it out. I say they dragged it because the wheels wouldn't turn, it still had normal grade grease in both wheel bearings and differential.
Needless to say, I didn't get much glass work done that day.
Jim_Alaska
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Geowizard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
Jim,
Fun times!
The minus 62.2 degrees I mentioned is Celsius. Equivalent to -81 F.
As with others, I installed a circulating heater that circulated heated engine coolant through the engine block. It was plugged in at all times when parked.
Lots of stories about the "thirties" written by Elmer Keturi and others and how early pioneer Alaskan miners managed to run heavy equipment in the record cold temperatures of that period!
- Geowizard
Fun times!
The minus 62.2 degrees I mentioned is Celsius. Equivalent to -81 F.
As with others, I installed a circulating heater that circulated heated engine coolant through the engine block. It was plugged in at all times when parked.
Lots of stories about the "thirties" written by Elmer Keturi and others and how early pioneer Alaskan miners managed to run heavy equipment in the record cold temperatures of that period!
- Geowizard
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Joe S (AK)
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
Determination, Tempered in the Heat of Stubbornness,
Really Gets Things Done!
Really Gets Things Done!
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Geowizard
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Re: Christmas, New Years and Such
War Stories;
Quoting a recent war story...
"Years later, in Saudi Arabia, during Desert Storm, I saw +150 F. (at 10:00 AM) and how that, also, was a fearsome thing, demanding absolute respect."
With "absolute respect", I submit for the record:
Gulf War Weather:
Desert Storm Weather:
17 Jan 1991 - 2 March 1991
Reference: Charter 3 of the report:
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA248571.pdf
You be the judge.
Happy Holidays!
- Geowizard
Quoting a recent war story...
"Years later, in Saudi Arabia, during Desert Storm, I saw +150 F. (at 10:00 AM) and how that, also, was a fearsome thing, demanding absolute respect."
With "absolute respect", I submit for the record:
Gulf War Weather:
Desert Storm Weather:
17 Jan 1991 - 2 March 1991
Reference: Charter 3 of the report:
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA248571.pdf
You be the judge.
Happy Holidays!
- Geowizard