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View Full Version : Alaska - tough place to live!



jimnyc
02-09-2022, 05:02 PM
At least certain areas, certain activities & perhaps your location of choice.

Like if you choose to live in "Deadhorse", which experienced temperatures of -50 below zero degrees! With the wind chill real feel it was -88 degrees!! Damn!!

A few others of note:

Bettles - -51
Prudhoe Bay - -47
Nuiqsut - -53
Howard Pass - -91 with wind chill factor

It got cold one night while I was there and was like -5 degrees in the mid of night, and that was bad. I couldn't even imagine what -70+ must feel like.


Bone-chilling cold makes it feel like 88 below zero in remote Alaskan town

As temperatures rise across the West Coast, potentially breaking records across California, it's a different story farther north in Alaska. Thanks to a combination of dangerously low temperatures and bitter winds, bone-chilling weather has overtaken the Last Frontier this week.

Bettles, Alaska, located in the north-central part of the state, had a low temperature of 51 degrees below zero Fahrenheit Sunday morning, well below the average of 15 below zero F this time of year. During the day Sunday, the afternoon temperature barely peaked at 25 below zero F. Prudhoe Bay, situated on the state's northeast coast, had similar conditions with a morning low of 47 below zero and a daytime high of 27 below zero, both well below the average low of 21 below zero F.

On Monday morning, the remote northern town of Deadhorse reached 50 below zero, with gusty winds bringing the AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperature to as low as 88 below zero. Believe it or not, that's not the coldest it's ever felt in Deadhorse. A RealFeel of 101 below zero occurred on Jan. 28, 1989. (RealFeel was introduced by AccuWeather in 1997 but can be estimated using historical data). On Wednesday morning, the actual temperature slipped to 54 below zero, but RealFeel Temperatures bottomed out at 79 below zero.

Meanwhile, Nuiqsut hit an actual temperature of 53 below zero. Howard Pass, home to some of the state's most extreme weather, reported a wind chill of 91 below zero, only a few degrees away from the town's unofficial record wind chill of 100 below zero F, set in 2014. On Wednesday morning, the actual temperature bottomed out at 49 below zero with a RealFeel near 60 below zero.

Rest - https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/bone-chilling-cold-makes-it-feel-like-88-below-zero-in-remote-alaskan-town/1139212

jimnyc
02-09-2022, 05:04 PM
And maybe when you are out in that cold, perhaps riding a sled dog....


Giant moose tramples dog sled team in Alaska for almost an hour

https://i.imgur.com/zaDafEv.jpg

A giant bull moose spent an hour trampling a dog sled team in Alaska even after the owner emptied her gun into the animal.

Bridgett Watkins and her team of dogs were attacked by the moose last week while on a 52-mile run. Three dogs needed surgery.

"This has been the most horrific past 24 hours of my life," Watkins said in a Facebook post.

As the moose charged at her and her team, Watkins shot the animal, but it didn't stop him from stomping on the dogs, according to the post.

"I ran for my life and prayed I was fast enough to not be killed in that moment," she wrote.

After she and a friend trailing her took refuge behind her snowmobile, the moose charged them and stopped 2 feet in front of the machine. She was able to cut six dogs free, but the moose returned to trample the other dogs.

"I have never felt so helpless in my life. He would not leave us alone and he even stood over top of the team refusing to retreat," Watkins wrote.

Rest - https://www.yahoo.com/news/giant-moose-tramples-dog-sled-182028294.html

fj1200
02-09-2022, 09:49 PM
Wow. When I was riding through the nowheres of Maine, I was told don't worry about the bears. Worry about the Mooses.

NightTrain
02-09-2022, 10:51 PM
At least certain areas, certain activities & perhaps your location of choice.

Like if you choose to live in "Deadhorse", which experienced temperatures of -50 below zero degrees! With the wind chill real feel it was -88 degrees!! Damn!!

A few others of note:

Bettles - -51
Prudhoe Bay - -47
Nuiqsut - -53
Howard Pass - -91 with wind chill factor

It got cold one night while I was there and was like -5 degrees in the mid of night, and that was bad. I couldn't even imagine what -70+ must feel like.


No one really lives in Deadhorse - that's the front gate to Prudhoe Bay / North Slope and as far North as you can drive as a non-oilfield worker. The smart ones in Barrow wait until about this time of year to buy a new vehicle and drive it West from Deadhorse over the ice road - saves about $8k in shipping on the once-a-year barge that arrives in August. Everyone there in Deadhorse works in shifts, like 3 weeks on / 2 weeks off, or some combo like that. But yeah, it definitely gets cold there.

I think -88 with wind chill was the coldest I've been in, working outside in Barrow. It was brutal.

But it was -22 by the mercury in Talkeetna when you were here and Lee, Jim and I took off to town at 1am to retrieve the diesel from the trucks... and still -20 when you got up the next morning.


As far as that musher goes... she's a lousy shot. There's no blood anywhere, so I suspect she 'sprayed-n-prayed' & missed every shot. I'd be curious to find out what caliber she was packing (hopefully nothing silly like a 9mm), and kind of surprised she didn't have another full reload in her pocket. I fully understand that when you're being charged by a moose or bear that there's a ton of adrenaline pumping and you'll have a huge tendency to shake... but you have to control yourself, focus, and make sure every bullet counts.

They're both lucky he didn't come over the snowmachine and put the waffle-stomp to them, too.... it definitely happens. Moose don't like getting off that nice hard trail and back into bottomless snow and they get an attitude about it. When the ears go back and the hackles go up, you'd better be slapping leather because he's seconds away.

SassyLady
02-10-2022, 01:11 AM
Those poor dogs.

jimnyc
02-10-2022, 02:27 PM
Wow. When I was riding through the nowheres of Maine, I was told don't worry about the bears. Worry about the Mooses.

One of the first things Rick warned me about when getting to Alaska - was not to f*** with a moose if you come across one on the snow machine - as they will do a little stomp dance on your ass!


No one really lives in Deadhorse - that's the front gate to Prudhoe Bay / North Slope and as far North as you can drive as a non-oilfield worker. The smart ones in Barrow wait until about this time of year to buy a new vehicle and drive it West from Deadhorse over the ice road - saves about $8k in shipping on the once-a-year barge that arrives in August. Everyone there in Deadhorse works in shifts, like 3 weeks on / 2 weeks off, or some combo like that. But yeah, it definitely gets cold there.

I think -88 with wind chill was the coldest I've been in, working outside in Barrow. It was brutal.

But it was -22 by the mercury in Talkeetna when you were here and Lee, Jim and I took off to town at 1am to retrieve the diesel from the trucks... and still -20 when you got up the next morning.

The official population of Deadhorse is 25 people! LOL

And damn, I know it was freezing when I woke up at like 3am. My frozen brain lost track of temps and reality until you came back and got us running again. And that was nuttin compared to these numbers I am seeing!


Those poor dogs.

That was my thought too and I cut short the copy/paste so that we didn't have to see/discuss it. I guess it happens as they naturally must want to protect their owner. :( :(