Land of the melting Fairbanksans
Jul. 9th, 2009 05:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
glacier_kittyWednesday was the hottest day in Fairbanks in almost 15 years.
A record high temperature of 90 degrees was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport at 4:35 p.m., the first 90-degree day in Fairbanks since Aug. 5, 1994, according to statistics kept by the National Weather Service.
“That’s our longest 90-degree drought on record,” meteorologist Rick Thoman said. “We’ve never gone anywhere close to 15 years without a 90-degree temperature.”
The 90-degree reading broke the old record high of 88 degrees set in 1964.
It marked the seventh day in a row the temperature in Fairbanks hit 80 or higher, the longest such stretch since June 2004, meteorologist Matthew Kidwell said.
The heat wave baking Fairbanks is being caused by a high pressure ridge that has been sitting over the Interior for the past week.
Smoke from wildfires that had been blanketing the Tanana Valley and obscuring the sun cleared out on Wednesday, which helped push the temperature higher, Thoman said. The high on Tuesday in Fairbanks was 84 degrees.
“The smoke might have been worth a degree or two (on Tuesday),” Thoman said. “The air mass is much warmer today.”
Local residents were soaking up the heat in different ways. The beach at Chena Lakes Recreation Area was packed on Wednesday, park ranger Pete Vogt said. At 5 p.m., Vogt estimated there were still 700 or 800 people on the beach at Chena Lake.
“For a Wednesday, it’s an awful lot of people,” he said, adding that there were “tons” of people swimming in the lake.
Likewise, people in canoes and rafts took advantage of the warm weather to float down the Chena River through downtown Fairbanks.
Fairbanks police received several calls on Wednesday about people jumping into the Chena River from bridges, namely the foot bridge that crosses the river behind the Comfort Inn near Pioneer Park, Sgt. Jeremy Lindhag said.
It’s not illegal to jump off a bridge into the river, but it’s probably not the smartest or safest thing to do, Lindhag said. Paramedics from the Fairbanks Fire Department were dispatched to tend to one jumper Wednesday who dislocated his shoulder, he said.
Still, Lindhag could understand the attraction of jumping into the river.
“It would be refreshing,” he said. “It’s 90 degrees out there.”
The post-dinnertime rush at the College Road Hot Licks ice cream stand has been bigger than normal the past few days, night manager Kristin Johnson said.
“(Tuesday) was pretty crazy, and I’m expecting tonight will be a little bit worse,” Johnson said at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Business has been hot at Jones Ice Factory on South Cushman Street, said owner Genice Jones, who supplies several stores around town with bags of ice.
“It’s been busy, busier than last year,” she said on Wednesday. “People are out fishing and camping more.”
Wednesday marked the eighth 80-degree or warmer day of the summer, already topping last year’s total of six 80-degree days. The average number of 80-degree days during the summer in Fairbanks is 12, Thoman said.
The string of 80-degree days will likely end today as slightly cooler air moves into the Tanana Valley, but temperatures could be back above the 80-degree mark by the weekend.
“The weather pattern really is not changing much,” Kidwell said. “We’ll be back in the 80s by the weekend.”
Jones, for one, is hoping the nice weather continues through the rest of the summer.
Pic of the day:
Yeah..it was SO hot in the house yesterday. I felt like swimming in the Chena myself haha. Then a storm came last night (finally!) and cooled it down a lot. Someone said there was a crazy high storm cloud over McKinley
I went to lunch with Becky today! It was cool haha
Today's trivia: After a three-week vacation, your IQ can drop by as much as 20 percent
A record high temperature of 90 degrees was recorded at Fairbanks International Airport at 4:35 p.m., the first 90-degree day in Fairbanks since Aug. 5, 1994, according to statistics kept by the National Weather Service.
“That’s our longest 90-degree drought on record,” meteorologist Rick Thoman said. “We’ve never gone anywhere close to 15 years without a 90-degree temperature.”
The 90-degree reading broke the old record high of 88 degrees set in 1964.
It marked the seventh day in a row the temperature in Fairbanks hit 80 or higher, the longest such stretch since June 2004, meteorologist Matthew Kidwell said.
The heat wave baking Fairbanks is being caused by a high pressure ridge that has been sitting over the Interior for the past week.
Smoke from wildfires that had been blanketing the Tanana Valley and obscuring the sun cleared out on Wednesday, which helped push the temperature higher, Thoman said. The high on Tuesday in Fairbanks was 84 degrees.
“The smoke might have been worth a degree or two (on Tuesday),” Thoman said. “The air mass is much warmer today.”
Local residents were soaking up the heat in different ways. The beach at Chena Lakes Recreation Area was packed on Wednesday, park ranger Pete Vogt said. At 5 p.m., Vogt estimated there were still 700 or 800 people on the beach at Chena Lake.
“For a Wednesday, it’s an awful lot of people,” he said, adding that there were “tons” of people swimming in the lake.
Likewise, people in canoes and rafts took advantage of the warm weather to float down the Chena River through downtown Fairbanks.
Fairbanks police received several calls on Wednesday about people jumping into the Chena River from bridges, namely the foot bridge that crosses the river behind the Comfort Inn near Pioneer Park, Sgt. Jeremy Lindhag said.
It’s not illegal to jump off a bridge into the river, but it’s probably not the smartest or safest thing to do, Lindhag said. Paramedics from the Fairbanks Fire Department were dispatched to tend to one jumper Wednesday who dislocated his shoulder, he said.
Still, Lindhag could understand the attraction of jumping into the river.
“It would be refreshing,” he said. “It’s 90 degrees out there.”
The post-dinnertime rush at the College Road Hot Licks ice cream stand has been bigger than normal the past few days, night manager Kristin Johnson said.
“(Tuesday) was pretty crazy, and I’m expecting tonight will be a little bit worse,” Johnson said at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Business has been hot at Jones Ice Factory on South Cushman Street, said owner Genice Jones, who supplies several stores around town with bags of ice.
“It’s been busy, busier than last year,” she said on Wednesday. “People are out fishing and camping more.”
Wednesday marked the eighth 80-degree or warmer day of the summer, already topping last year’s total of six 80-degree days. The average number of 80-degree days during the summer in Fairbanks is 12, Thoman said.
The string of 80-degree days will likely end today as slightly cooler air moves into the Tanana Valley, but temperatures could be back above the 80-degree mark by the weekend.
“The weather pattern really is not changing much,” Kidwell said. “We’ll be back in the 80s by the weekend.”
Jones, for one, is hoping the nice weather continues through the rest of the summer.
Pic of the day:
Yeah..it was SO hot in the house yesterday. I felt like swimming in the Chena myself haha. Then a storm came last night (finally!) and cooled it down a lot. Someone said there was a crazy high storm cloud over McKinley
I went to lunch with Becky today! It was cool haha
Today's trivia: After a three-week vacation, your IQ can drop by as much as 20 percent
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Date: 2009-07-12 01:11 pm (UTC)Wow 90 degrees is also very hot for pretty much anywhere except Arizona haha. Those kinds of summer storms that cool everything down temporarily are some of the best. We had one last night...our thunderstorms usually last for about 10-15 minutes, but this one literally lasted hours. It was pretty crazy haha.