The Weather – Alaska Summer/Spring, How Wonderful Can It be.

Before moving here I expected the weather here, Mat-Su Valley, to be cool, mainly in the 50’s, and a bit rainy this time of year, I couldn’t have been more wrong. So far this summer, spring really, it just plain couldn’t be any better. Temps have been in the 60’s to mid to high 70’s with only 1 (one) day of rain, a badly needed rain it was. If you’re out of any breeze, it feels damn hot, but without the humidity of Michigan. Think of this, as I type this, 6:00 pm, the temp is 72.3*F, wind at 2 mph, and the humidity, well, there is none, it’s at 22%. How wonderful is that? Don’t answer, I know, it can’t be beat anywhere. Now granted, it does get cool at night, down to the middle 30’s, (great sleeping temps) but NO frost or freeze, even in May. Now the really good part, though I don’t get to enjoy it much but the weekends, the days are long, and I mean Looong. OK, so this is the first summer I’ve spent in Alaska, but man, the length of day is a woozy. Winter was nothing, nothing at all, hardly no snow, length of day, big deal (NOT), cold, same, NOT. Summer, spring as it is, is like a different world, the days don’t end, and to think that the longest day isn’t until June 21, that’s over a month away.
Here is our sunrise and sunset times for tomorrow:

Begin civil twilight 3:33 a.m.
Sunrise 4:54 a.m.
Sun transit 1:54 p.m.
Sunset 10:56 p.m.
End civil twilight 12:19 a.m. on following day

Now trust me on this, that “civil twilight” thing at 3:33 am, bullshit, I got up at 3:00 am today to get ready for work and let the dogs out, and it was light out, yes, light, I mean, if I was lost in the woods somewhere, I wouldn’t need a flashlight, none, nada, not a damn thing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not sunlight, so to speak, but it sure as hell is twilight. That twlight end thing, well, haven’t seen that, I haven’t been up at around 12:30 am in years, but I would bet it’s not very dark, like the dark you see stars in. I just looked it up, in the Northern Hemisphere summers solstice begins on June 21, 2009 at 1:45 A.M. EDT, that’s 5:45 A.M. ADT. Now on that day, the sun officially sets at 11:46 PM, that’s almost midnight, man, and rises at 4:13 AM. Now I know that during this time, twilight will be, lets just say, always on.

Let me explain why I’m going on about this. As some of you know, I’m an armature weather guy, and the sun has all sorts to do with weather. That, and I just think it’s cool, all this light and shit.

Anyway, because I don’t get out much during the week due to work, here are some more of the sunrise taken this morning.

Birch seeds during sunrise

’til next time
Laters
Ed

3 Comments:

  1. So are you saying that we should move to Alaska to get some better weather? The weather in N. Mich has been shit. One day that hit 80, but all of the rest have been low 60’s and rainy…

  2. Hi Ed, beautiful blog you have here.

    If there’s a place I’d love to live in the US it’d be Alaska. Gorgeous pictures, thanks for sharing.

    I’ll make a note to visit again.

    Sergio

  3. Today, I went to the beach with my children. I found a sea shell and gave it to my 4 year old daughter and said “You can hear the ocean if you put this to your ear.” She put the shell to her ear and screamed. There was a hermit crab inside and it pinched her ear. She never wants to go back! LoL I know this is completely off topic but I had to tell someone!

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