I'm sure you've noticed that the East Coast has had an unusually cold and snowy winter. In fact, TEXAS has had an unusually cold and snowy winter. Nearly all areas of the U.S. added new temperature and weather records this year, but they weren't all on the cold side. Alaska experienced Spring-like temperatures in January! We reveled in our warmth and hated it all at the same time, because we knew it was too good to last this early in the year. Places in Alaska set records for earliest open water, warmest January, least snowfall, and most confused plants (okay, I made up the last one). But it's still true, the willows budded sooner this year and some people claimed their raspberry plants started swelling as if spring was around the corner.
If you headed further south, California was also experiencing a hotter and drier winter than usual. Much to my chagrin, my sister-in-law in Redding, CA, was still watering her flowers in December! But these weather anomalies are fluctuating. Global warming is an average of extremes. So, while Alaska might be warmer than California one week, it's bound to balance itself out to the natural order of things eventually. Alaska will NEVER be warmer than California ALL the time, it's simple geography. But, over years of temperatures analysis, we might discover that Alaska's temperatures are, on average, not as different from California's as they once were.
This is all to say, that the balmy 40 and 50 degree thermometer readings I was enjoying at the end of January are no more. They are gone and replaced by the 20's and 30's (or colder) with high winds, frost, and icy roads. And everyone in Alaska sighed and said, "I knew it wouldn't last." Of course, maybe the skiers and snowmachiners gave a giddy jump for joy, but there still isn't much snow to speak of. We do have plenty of ice, though!
I know there's a saying, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." It's a good bit of advise that has universal application. I think the equivalent for Alaskan weather could be, "When Alaska gives you freezing temps, but forgets the snow, admire the ice!" It's not very catchy, but it is usable. The other day, my husband and I were driving home after dark and he commented about how he liked the glittering sparkles of ice crystals that reflected in the headlights off every surface. Even the drab frozen dirt glinted like a kindergarten art project. After days of bitter cold, the frost and ice builds up on everything, like a slow-growing white stubble.
The shape and texture of the ice depends on the exact weather conditions, amount of moisture, and the substrate it grows on. I learned that all ice and snow has a hexagonal shape. Even the needle-shaped kind has six sides if viewed as a cross-section. And the reason that no two snowflakes are identical is because it's growth is so intricately designed by the minutest atmospheric conditions. As a snowflake falls through the sky, its form is influenced every moment by temperature, moisture, wind, and other subtle factors. Frost forms similarly.
Frost can be deposited on surfaces by water vapor in the air cooling, or by objects releasing their own water vapor as they cool. The latter type is called Hoar Frost and is quite beautiful and ornate. There are lots of other types of icy things that happen when the temperature drops: ice fog, wind frost and fern frost, rime, black ice, icicles, and a myriad of cool stuff involving standing water and trapped air bubbles. Check out my "Ice Castles" post to see some of that. Anyway, all this beautiful ice got me thinking about my outlook on Alaska, weather, and my attitude in general. It seems like I have to continually remind myself that something good can ALMOST ALWAYS be found in any situation. It's the whole 'silver lining' thing.
For example, I really hate the cold. I mean REALLY! But I would never be able to see the pretty glittering ice unless I lived somewhere cold. On a non-weather related topic, I have been on about a dozen job interviews in the last four months, and put in more than thirty applications, in an attempt to secure a job in an environmental job sector. I'm not even picky about what environmental field I get into, just something to utilize the expensive college degree I worked my butt off to earn! Luck does not seem to be in my favor, however. The upside, if I have to come up with one, is that I have more time with my family, and to cook healthy food at home, and snuggle with my kitties by the wood stove. I do have a part-time job (three in fact) for which I am extremely grateful. Maybe my multi-faceted lesson is that the varying conditions of my work are forming my exact shape. Along the idea of What would a snowflake do? maybe I should just go with the flow of my current atmosphere and try to make the best of it.
