Alaska-the new place to escape winter?

[roarusdogus]

Maybe it's just me but it seems to me Alaska has really been struggling to have any type of "normal" alaskan cold now for many years. Some record highs occured again across Alaska, with many areas having temps at least 20 degrees above average. Barrow had a high of 26. That's very mild for the arctic circle this time of year. It just seems like no matter what, Alaska can't get the cold air you would expect to see there. The bad part is that nature around there really relies on cold weather to survive in many instances. I mean Fairbanks had a high of 38 while their average is in the teens. It can't be good when Fairbanks gets above freezing in November.

[weatherluvr]

A big concern for Alaskans would have to be the permafrost layers melting and causing structural damage to foundations of buildings. If the recent spate of warmer weather that's been prevalant the last few years continues, they're going to have some big problems, to say nothing of the effect on wildlife.

[JCT777]

I agree that temps in Alaska seem to be a lot warmer the past few years than they were before. I recall about 4 years ago seeing a stretch of days where Fairbanks and areas close to Fairbanks were having low temps appraching -60 during one of their very cold outbreaks. I have seen nothing even close to this the past 2 years.

[LMolineux]

sorry to use the copy paste idea here but its easier.


quote:
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Originally posted by LMolineux
But hasnt Alaska Warmed significantly as i have heard some areas of Alaska warmed enough to cause soem things to melt and the earth to shift due to thawing? I do believe i have heard this on CNN and FoxNews channels about so warm in Alaska even wild life that live there have had to migrate mor north and east in Alaska to survive or addapt to the new style of weather they are getting now.
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Last year there was a huge report published in the Nytimes detailing these things you're referring to. The data used to present the case was so profoundly inaccurated that the University of Alaska at Fairbanks issued a response on their page to the article refuting almost all of it.
What data there is show only marginal warming. There is also data wich calls even this marginal warming into question...ie, urban heat islands and the fact that most of the Fairbanks is significantly colder than what the current airport reports.
AS many people know, in Fairbanks there is something known as an inversion. This makes it so that the valley can be up to 20-30 degrees colder than the surrounding hills. The airport is now on one of these hills.
It's a big issue of contention up in Fairbanks, that basically the airport in no way represents whats really going on up there, especially once you get out east towards Salcha, west all the way down to Nenana and so forth.


__________________
Fort Kent, Maine
Average Annual Temperature: 37 degrees
Average January High: 18
Average January Low: -6
Average Annual Snow: ~120 inches
Record Low Temp(Fort Kent): -44

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i copied and pasted somethign i posted and got a quote back from a member on the WWBB