Well I have reached my 400th post since I found this sight back in April 2001.  It is currently  -17 degrees in Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska with a wind chill of -46.  It is expected to reach -30 area tonight with 21 mph winds, that means the wind chill will be in the -50 and -60 area.
Enjoy the new year and what it brings.  

Congratulations on your post count

We are supposed to hit -40 tomorrow, damn weatherman!

Stay warm and stay safe
Chris

Jeez...its 30 degrees at Kuparuk, Prudhoe Bay.  Only problem is we're in a Phase 3(Whiteout 40mph Winds) weather condition and couldn't go to work today.

It been really warm all week.  Weird.  I've never seen it this warm.  I guess its been playing hell on the AIC boys building the Ice Roads.

The whole North Slope has been warmer than normal.  I was out shooting my Remington PSS and M21 just this last week because it was so nice outside.  This I have not been able to do in six years.  I worked up some good reloads and was happy with the results.  
It looks like come Feb that I will be working a rotaional schedual and be off Slope for two weeks a month.  It will be nice getting to head out and shoot at a real range finally.  

uafgrad you still coming up for a visit this week?  Let me know how things are going.  Looks like some nice changes are going on up here.  We are starting back up our three man investigation unit again.  

My visit is Friday, though it is in Anchorage.  Hopefully all will go well and I will get to come to the tropics soon.

Got up this morning and it's -30 with colder temps in site.

Chris

Good luck and enjoy your vsit to Anchorage.

Thanks for the encouragement, I'm already getting nervous.

You think that's bad...

I'm in Kaktovik/Barter Island.  We have been in the same North Slope storm but it is much worse here than just phase 3 (use to work at Oliktok beyond Kuparuk).  This last storm started Friday.  The ENTIRE village is without power, dark and cold.  They had half the village powered until a couple days ago.  The affect villagers were taking refuge in the school since they had a backup power system, which died a couple of days ago...  Our radar station is self sufficient, on our own generator power (and sewage/water/comm/food).  I keep expecting the villagers to bum rush us for shelter, but even if we tried the facilities are just too limited.

So, runway has no lights, sun doesn't rise until the 17th, the automatic weather observation system (AWOS) is without power so no weather data for pilots, and it's of course, storming.  A C-130 by Air National Guard tried to make an emergency rescue flight in today so they could get the power up as there is no one here skilled to fix anything, they must import linemen from Barrow to fix the power, mechanics to fix the heavy equipment, and so on.

They circled for a while and turned back.  It's looking pretty freaking grim for the village.  It's only -18deg with winds gusting to 60mph or so, visibility nil and blowing snow.  Heard how cold it was around the state.  Naturally the interior is cold, friend of mine works out of Fairbanks for the state and it was -47F.  Alaskan's know this followed a warm spell - it actually hit +35 here as the storm was brewing.

Congradulations on your 400th post, arcticbear!  Still looking forward to having you rotate and be stationed here, hopefully.

I can't believe local phones are still working, the battery banks must be getting mighty low.  If that goes out, so goes my internet connection.  I would miss my miserable 24k modem connection

Life goes on, kind of...

AK_Mike

Looks like you all made the news again today.  ADN has a good artical about your pwer outage and the problems.  The police station out there also lost power and their generator is not working again.  Looks like one should take care of business while it is warm and not wait until winter.  This does not supprise me that a whole village went down in the middle of the winter.  I also hear that they are still trying to get a C-130 into you guys.  If not I hear that they will try a Kat-train out of Dead Horse for you all.  I hear you all even made CNN News last night.  

Looks like the rotation to Kaktovik will not happen until this fall sometime.  I will be having the middle of each month off from now on.  I look forward to have a shoot sevearl times over this summer.

Well, when you get here I should have some of the fun toys with me, and plenty of ammo.

So, the situation worsens!  I see now we rated two CNN news factoids at the bottom.  85mph winds.  It's blowing so hard it manhandles even my fat ass when I'm outside.

Incredibly, all the village needs is ONE GUY to restore power - the lineman from Barrow.  Every time this happens, they fly a contracted lineman over from Barrow and he gets the power up within 1-3 hours.  It's just that no one here has the skill or certification to do that work.

I hear they are even trying to bring over generators.

Now I hear instead of a C-130, they are going to attempt to make it in with Blackhawks.  With wind such as it is, I don't know how feasable that is.  Anyone know the max winds a Blackhawk can take?  Naturally, any military crew will be billeting at our USAF radar station, I'll be cook, janitor, and maid.  I only use my primary skill (electronics technician) about 5% of the time, if that.

I think they will make it in today.  I sure hope so for the village's sake, especially the very young and very elderly.