Cold. Cold cold cold cold cold...

[Judy G. Russell]

When the temperature is -28F and the windchill is at -60F, there is no way to stay warm. None. Your breath fogs your glasses. Your fingers and toes ache. Your #$%@$ eyeballs hurt.

But the northern lights are ohhhhhhhhh so pretty...

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[Mike]

I'm so glad you got what you went for. Great pix, as usual, yip!

[Dan in Saint Louis]

Originally Posted by Judy G. Russell

But the northern lights are ohhhhhhhhh so pretty...

Oh my. Oh, MY!

[ktinkel]

Oh, dear — did we neglect to mention how cold it gets in Fairbanks? Sorry.

Great shots!

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by Mike

I'm so glad you got what you went for. Great pix, as usual, yip!

Thanks, Mike! And I'm even more glad we left when we did -- Mount Redoubt (volcano near Anchorage) blew yesterday!!

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by Dan in Saint Louis

Oh my. Oh, MY!

That was kind of what I was saying... when my lips weren't frozen...

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Oh, dear — did we neglect to mention how cold it gets in Fairbanks? Sorry.

It wasn't supposed to be THAT cold!!

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Great shots!

Thanks!!

[ktinkel]

Originally Posted by Judy G. Russell

Thanks, Mike! And I'm even more glad we left when we did -- Mount Redoubt (volcano near Anchorage) blew yesterday!!

I missed that — assume it is mostly an ash event? That’s what we had when Mt. Spurr erupted in 1953. It was in the middle of our short summer, endless days of black dust covering everything and filling the sky.

Not pleasant. I think Redoubt is even larger. Did it have any effect on your flight? You were probably far enough away to avoid it — ash is very destructive for motors. Car owners usually wrap nylon stockings over air intakes, but I can’t imagine what an airplane would need!

[ktinkel]

I believe Fairbanks holds the U.S. record for the widest range of temperatures from winter to summer: 65° below zero to 90° above.

Those must be record temps, but 40 below is common, and I am pretty sure 80 above is fairly common in the (brief) summer.

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

I missed that — assume it is mostly an ash event? That’s what we had when Mt. Spurr erupted in 1953. It was in the middle of our short summer, endless days of black dust covering everything and filling the sky.
Not pleasant. I think Redoubt is even larger. Did it have any effect on your flight? You were probably far enough away to avoid it — ash is very destructive for motors. Car owners usually wrap nylon stockings over air intakes, but I can’t imagine what an airplane would need!

We fortunately flew out on Saturday, some 24 hours before the volcano blew, and it does appear to be mostly ash, but remember: the last time it blew, it knocked out all four engines of a KLM flight that then dropped two miles in altitude before recovering power... Ulp... So they stopped all flights in and out of Anchorage once it blew.

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

I believe Fairbanks holds the U.S. record for the widest range of temperatures from winter to summer: 65° below zero to 90° above. Those must be record temps, but 40 below is common, and I am pretty sure 80 above is fairly common in the (brief) summer.

Forty below is just too cold for anyone with a lick of sense, which I think may explain a lot about the state and its politicians (Sarah Palin may just be a very good representative governor for the loonies who live there!). People kept telling us the summers made up for the winters because they could go fishing at 2 a.m. if they wanted to. I kept wondering (to myself) why in hell anyone would want to go fishing at 2 a.m., and whether summer lasted longer than an afternoon in July anyway!

[Mike Landi]

Originally Posted by Judy G. Russell

When the temperature is -28F and the windchill is at -60F, there is no way to stay warm. None. Your breath fogs your glasses. Your fingers and toes ache. Your #$%@$ eyeballs hurt.

But the northern lights are ohhhhhhhhh so pretty...

1.



2.



3.



4.



5.



6.

<speechless>

...Wow!

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by Mike Landi

<speechless> ...Wow!

Thanks, Mike. I was really pleased by the way the pictures turned out, and just thrilled that the camera kept chugging away despite the cold.

[rlohmann]

Breathtaking!

Where did you take these?

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by rlohmann

Breathtaking!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by rlohmann

Where did you take these?

A place called Chena Hot Springs, about 60 miles from Fairbanks, Alaska. I read that one of the best times to see the aurora was the spring solstice, which happened this year to fall the same week as the spring break at Rutgers and (as usual) as my birthday. So I decided the time had come to see the lights for myself. And d@mned near froze my nose off!

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by Judy G. Russell

Thanks, Mike! And I'm even more glad we left when we did -- Mount Redoubt (volcano near Anchorage) blew yesterday!!

I thought about you when I saw that in the news, and I wondered if you were still there. Glad you got home ahead of it!

TPM tried to contact Bobby Jindal to see if he still thought it was laughable to monitor volcanos in Alaska, but Jindal was not returning calls...

[Lindsey]

Originally Posted by ktinkel

Not pleasant. I think Redoubt is even larger. Did it have any effect on your flight? You were probably far enough away to avoid it — ash is very destructive for motors. Car owners usually wrap nylon stockings over air intakes, but I can’t imagine what an airplane would need!

Basically, an airliner needs to stay away from the plume! Which is one reason that they monitor active volcanos. I saw a very scary 20/20 episode some years back about a jet that had all of its engines stall when they ran into an ash plume unawares -- it was a volcano that erupted somewhere in Asia, I think. And this was some time ago, before there was the sort of monitoring there is now. The pilots had no clue what had gone wrong, the only knew that the engines had stalled, that they could no longer see out of the front (do they call that a windshield?), and there was something that looked like an electrical discharge gliding over the surface of the plane. It must have felt like entering the Twilight Zone.

Oh--yeah, this is the one. British Airways Flight 009 from London Heathrow to Aukland in 1982. I had forgotten this part: This was a 747, they're flying over the Indian Ocean, all four engines had flamed out nearly simultaneously, and the crew is facing the prospect of having to ditch into the sea if they cannot get a sufficient number of engines restarted. Oh, and they're well above the recommended altitude for an in-flight engine re-start. The passengers can both see and feel that something is badly wrong, and some of them are calm and resigned, some near hysteria.

And then the pilot comes on the intercom, and with typical British understatement says:

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress.

The pilots finally did manage to re-start the engines and get the plane landed safely, but it was a heart-stopping feat of expert piloting that did it.

Oh, ouch -- reading a little farther down, a KLM flight had a similar experience over Alaska after a 1989 eruption of Mount Redoubt. They managed to restart the engines, too, and landed safely in Anchorage, but I'm sure Judy figures that's the kind of excitement she can well live without. (Later: I see Judy was already aware of that one.)

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by Lindsey

I thought about you when I saw that in the news, and I wondered if you were still there. Glad you got home ahead of it!

We were sure glad we made it out before!

Originally Posted by Lindsey

TPM tried to contact Bobby Jindal to see if he still thought it was laughable to monitor volcanos in Alaska, but Jindal was not returning calls...

Poor Bobby... gotta feel sorry for the lad...

[Judy G. Russell]

Originally Posted by Lindsey

... I'm sure Judy figures that's the kind of excitement she can well live without. (Later: I see Judy was already aware of that one.)

And it was because I was aware of it that I really was hoping NOT to end up experiencing it!!!

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Judy G. Russell

Thanks, Mike! And I'm even more glad we left when we did -- Mount Redoubt (volcano near Anchorage) blew yesterday!!

You're welcome, and I'm glad you left when you did, too. I had several friends who had major inconvenience when Mt. St. Helen blew in the early 1990s, and then again in 2004. (Neither was as bad as 1980's eruption.)