I posted this photo on Twitter and someone called it a Sant-o-Lantern which I thought was pretty funny.

This is why Halloween pumpkins last a good long time in Tok, Alaska…

Got a good cold-weather photo from your neck of the woods? Share a link with us!

It is so warm here this holiday season, like 15 below to zero degrees. I’m not even wearing a hat or gloves most days. Last year this time I was afraid to carry my toddler out to the car for fear her lungs would freeze in the 60 below and colder weather.

But there is still snow everywhere and will be for months. And months.

Here are a few scenes from “downtown Tok” this past weekend.

That last pic was around 10:45 a.m. with the sun just coming up over the mountains in the distance. It may not be cold here, but boy it sure is dark.

How are you faring this winter?

Now we’re having the weather I remember from our first months here in Tok. Tomorrow – Winter Soltice – will also mark exactly a year that we’ve been here. Finally getting my “Tok Legs” which is an awful lot like sea legs. Takes a lot of getting used to, there are moments of unrest, and then it all feels like no big deal. Then you get out of Tok and realize once again how very different things are here, for better or for worse.

With cold, comes new anecdotes about the cold – things that may seem quite normal and typical to most Tokites, but believe me they are not normal or typical for many others. My latest fun Tok Winter Pics are of the frost and ice forming on the inside of our windows today. Keep in mind we have 12 inch thick walls and two layers of windows!

In my daughter’s room, we had lined all of her teddy bears on the window sill, and they were all stuck to the windows. After some tugging and a little bit of teddy bear fur left behind, all bears were wrapped in blankets (after the requisite teddy bear operations to minimize frostbite).

We’ve just ordered some wood for the first time and plan to light our wood stove for the first time as soon as the wood arrives. Now THAT will be cozy and warm.

How are YOU faring on this fine winter’s day?

Who knew that the photos I posted of a Davis Weather Station showing -80 degrees and another showing -71 degrees would unleash a veritable storm of debate about the veracity of the temperature reading. Not only that, it sparked one heck of a heated argument about whether or not global warming – or climate change – is real (see comments on NPR’s site).

Even the fabulous weather geeks on Talk Weather chatted about the reading.

Now I have government types contacting me curious about the readings and wanting to see the computer data from the computer attached to the Vantage Pro 2 of said readings. That interest has resulted in a guy from NOAA coming to Tok next Friday and chatting with some folks here about the readings, the weather, and why/why not those readings may or may not be accurate.

All I can say is…

WOW!

All weather geeks welcome!

I’ll report back once the data has been analyzed and give you all the inside skinny.

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I had mentioned previously that I had a photo on my phone that my hubby texted me from his phone that I couldn’t figure out how to get off the phone and onto the Web but FINALLY figured it out.

Of course, the solution involves AT&T and their viewing web site for multimedia files and the pic is tiny, but hopefully it will show up well enough to make out that it does indeed say -71. This is the day before the -80 registered, I believe.

There are interested parties who will be looking at the Davis weather station data soon. Hopefully, I’ll have those updates.

Davis won’t vouch for these kind of readings, of course. What do YOU think? Malfunction? Or just pretty darn cold?

This is a shot of the weather station temp gauge at the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge offices in Tok, Alaska.

I’m still looking for a thermometer for the house that will register lower than -60 degrees. Any ideas?

Yesterday, I did a quick little video as I was driving to the Tok General Store. By the way, yesterday morning was minus 71 (at least), and we had 4 hours and 27 minutes of daylight. Don’t even want to do the math on how much dark we had.

NOTE TO SELF: It will only get lighter and lighter each day. Lighter and lighter. Lighter and lighter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpehMkZG78g

Yesterday…

Me: How cold is it this morning?

Husband: I think it is 60 below.

Me: Think? Did you check?

Husband: I did but the needle is buried.

Me: Under snow?

Husband: No. Haven’t you ever heard the expression “Bury the needle?”

Me: Err…no.

Husband: Oh, you must not have been a teenage boy in Montana.

Me: Not that I know of.

Husband: You know, racing your dad’s Pontiac and getting up past 120 miles per hour. It only went up to 120. If you went past that, you were burying the needle.

Me: Is it colder than 60 below?

Husband: Could be. It buried the needle.

Here is an example of what kids do in Tok when it is too cold to go outside…

Here’s an example of what grownups should NOT do when it is nearing 50 below…

…that is, don’t leave your wine stash in the pickup truck outside in the winter in Tok…