The Sophie’s Plaza thermometer was registering minus 44 on Tuesday, Jan 3. Photo by Steve Kakaruk
Members of the Alaska and Colorado Mesa University women's swim teams brave the 40-below zero temperatures for an outside group photograph after their swim meet Saturday afternoon, January 28, 2012 at the UAF Patty Center pool. For more on the meet see SPORTS. Eric Engman/News-Miner
Employees push a frozen 2001 Dodge Neon into a garage bay as mechanics stay busy fixing cold weather-related problems on vehicles at the Totem Chevron station on Gaffney Road Friday afternoon, January 20, 2012. The Neon needed to be towed in after it wouldn't start due to the cold weather. After an inspection of all the winterization cords, plugs, and heating elements, it was determined that a faulty heating element plug indicator light was the problem. Eric Engman/News-Miner
Mark Anderson's hood gathers frost as he walks along Farmers Loop Friday afternoon, December 30, 2011. "I'm trying to walk more," Anderson said during his trek to the store for groceries, adding that it hasn't gotten cold enough yet to keep him from walking. Eric Engman/News-Miner
The average temperature for the month at Fairbanks International Airport was was 26.9 degrees below zero, which was two-tenths of a degree colder than January 1969, according to a statement released by the National Weather Service on Wednesday.
The only years with colder Januarys than this one were 1966, 1934, 1971 and 1906. The coldest January on record remains 1906 with an average temperature of minus 36.4 degrees.
Though no daily temperature records were broken in Fairbanks, the average temperature was 19 degrees below normal for the month.
“It was much more the duration than any super-duper low temperatures,” meteorologist Rick Thoman said.
The coldest temperature observed at the airport was 51 below on Jan. 29, the first 50-below temperature in Fairbanks since 2006. It was one of two 50-below temperatures recorded at the airport. The other was 50 below on Jan. 28.
There were 18 total days during the month when the low temperature was 40 below or colder and another nine when the low was in the 30s below.
There wasn’t a single day when the low temperature was above zero and only three days when the high temperature broke the zero mark.
Here’s a rundown of how January 2012 stacked up in other communities in northern Alaska.
• Bettles — With an average temperature of -35.6 degrees, January 2012 goes down as the coldest month on record in the village 200 miles north of Fairbanks, surpassing the old record of -34.0 in January 1971. The low temperature for the month was 61 below on Jan. 31. Three of the last four days of the month had a low temperature of 60 below or colder and all three were new daily temperature records. They were the first 60 below temperatures at Bettles since February 1999. Weather records at Bettles date back to 1951.
• Denali Park — This was the coldest January at Denali Park since 1993. The average temperature was 18.6 below. The lowest temperature of the month was 41 below on Jan. 25. Weather records at Denali Park date back to 1922.
• Galena — January 2012 goes down as the coldest month on record in Galena. The average temperature of -32.6 degrees surpassed the previous low of -31.4 degrees in January 1971. The lowest temperature seen in Galena during the month was 65 below on Jan. 29. Not only was that a new daily low record, it was the third-lowest temperature ever observed at Galena. The all-time low was 70 below in January 1989.
There were four consecutive days (Jan. 28-31) with a low temperature of 60 below or colder, which ranks second behind only a six-day stretch of consecutive 60 below days in January 1989. Weather records in Galena date back to 1942.
• Kotzebue — With an average temperature of -22.6 degrees, January 2012 was the second-coldest since 1929. The coldest January on record is January 1934 with an average temperature of -27.7. The coldest temperature recorded in Kotzebue during the month was 45 below on Jan. 31, the coldest temperature in Kotzebue since 2006.
• Nome — January 2012 was the coldest January on record with an average temperature of -16.6 degrees, breaking the old record of -15.2 in 1989. It ranked only behind February 1990 (-17.2) as the coldest month on record . The lowest temperature observed during the month was 40 below on Jan. 5. It was the first 40 below temperature at Nome since 1999. Nome’s temperature records date back to 1907.
• Tanana — January 2012 was the coldest January in over 100 years in Tanana with an average temperature of -32.6 degrees. Only 1906 with an average temperature of -36.6 degrees was colder. The low temperature for the month was 61 below on Jan. 28. Though not a record, it was the first 60 below temperature since 1993 in Tanana.
Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
Cold Januarys
This January was one of the coldest Januarys on record in Fairbanks, according to National Weather Service records dating back to 1904. Here’s where we stood through Wednesday compared to the coldest Januarys on record.
Year Avg Temp
1906 -36.4
1971 -31.7
1934 -31.2
1966 -27.4
2012 -26.9
1969 -26.7
1908 -26.1
This is why global warming/climate change advocates have been removing data from the northern Russian landmass recording stations to "cook" the books in average global temperatures.
When this data is added, to give a truly "global" scope to the net data, the earth is in a cooling cycle, with dire consequences to the northern limit of agriculture.
1) to get the right answer
2) to make a living
Most scientists are personally motivated by the first, but people have sometimes made themselves famous, thereby increasing their income, by faking results. It's a risky strategy because they always get caught, sooner or later. The science community tends to banish them, and the guy who catches the wrongdoer becomes the famous one. I repeat: whistle blowers are highly motivated to expose wrongdoing.
You conspiracy theory types used to have Richard Muller as your fair-haired boy. Though not a climate scientist, he shot his mouth off at length about how 'they' are idiots, have left out Russian landmass data, blah blah blah. When put to the test, he had to admit all the analysis had been done correctly. Whistleblower? He wanted to be, but as a scientist he couldn't make himself fake the results.
Does anyone remember what comet was so visible in the winter of 1969?
naked eye visible
1969
Chicken Little likes to walk in the woods. She likes to look at the trees. She likes to smell the flowers. She likes to listen to the birds and the hug the trees.
One day while she is walking an acorn falls from a tree, and hits the top of her little head, Al Gore who was hiding in the tree and had just dropped it said, "You just had an inconvenient truth land on your head, it is uh, yes it is the Sky which is loading with co2 its global warming and its from him and she and you!
- My, oh, my, the sky is burning. I must run and tell the the universities about it, - says Chicken Little and begins to run.
She runs and runs. By and by she meets the professors.
- Where are you going? - asks the professors.
- Oh learned professors, the sky is burning and I am going to the world to tell them all about it.
Yes, I agree with the humor in wishing for temporal and locational global warming. Spread the warmth I say! :)
(global warming is only an average global temperature rise of a few degrees... but that has some significant global impacts)
Maybe I'm not refining my google searches enough?
This weather blog entry has some nice maps that show it.
http://classic.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2025
I thought that the term "global warming" was passe, and the correct term to use is now "climate change". Get with the program, will ya'?
I'm no climatologist (sp?) but I want to look at the data for myself. Too much hyperbole on both sides anymore.
Sure would be nice to have an edit feature here...
January '70 was very memorable... I spent the winter in New Zealand that year. ;-)
But this January has been a bit different... it has been consistently cold (going back to Dec 23rd) again except for three days, but not the record cold that we experienced in '69. Averages are not a really good way to describe the weather.
"With an average temperature of -35.6 degrees, January 2102 goes down as the coldest..."
BRAVO! And the winner of the Superbowl will be?
This could become a lucrative venture!