Hello Friends   ---

The weather has been the news up here the past week.  I suppose the weather has been the news in the lower 48 also, but for opposite reasons.  January has been above normal temps and below normal snow.  Last Friday when we woke up it was over 40 degrees.  It could have easily been 40 below instead of 40 above.  All the pretty snow in the trees melted or fell off.  There is still plenty of snow around, but not on the trees.

It also rained Thursday morning.  The road surfaces are way below freezing so the roads were very slick.  Walking was very slick.  School was cancelled for the day.  There were numerous accidents on the roads.  It was so warm that a butterfly was out.  It got its picture in the paper

It is the same high pressure system giving us the warm weather that is giving you the cold weather.  So when you blame us you are at least partly right.

Before the Iditarod there are qualifying races.  Some of them have been cancelled because of the warm weather.  There have been some questions about the Yukon Quest dog sled race that starts in Fairbanks this Saturday.  The officials say the race will go on.  The route may need to be changed in a few places, but the race will happen right on time.  We want it to start in the regular spot because our apartment is about 3-4 blocks from the start and just across the road from the usual path.

So some of the snow melted.  There was a buildup of frost on things also.  That melted away.  But new frost is forming.

The one below show the size better.

Barrow, Alaska had its first sunrise in 68 days last Wednesday.  They had no sun since November 18.  They would have had some twilight each day.  On the first day of sun for the season the sun shone for 23 minutes.

Do you buy salmon?  The price may go down.  Alaska has had its largest salmon harvest ever.  A good harvest pink salmon have been the reason.  Alaska fishermen have harvested 272,000,000 fish of all sorts.  Of those, 219,000,000 were pink salmon.

Have a good week.  It is still supposed to be warm here so there is a good chance you will be cold.  Pretend you like cold weather!

God's blessings to all.

Larry and Elva