Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Extreme temps at Eielson AFB

Badger rd in 1971. Partied with friends there. His and 3 neighbors had the mercury type thermometer. The ball at the bottom of 80 below was where all the mercury was. At the same time on Chena Hot Springs rd. It was only 60 below. Other areas around Fairbanks were a lot warmer also. Ed k

My first winter in Alaska - 68/69 in Fairbanks - the first two weeks of January averaged 53 below, never getting higher than -42, I think, nights dipping into the -60s. It warmed up to -35 one day at the end and started snowing, or at least ice crystals fell.

I spent the same winter in Anchorage at Elmendorf AFB. Brisk for sure for a country boy from Alabama.

Huge at monthly average, July 65. Degrees. Lowest monthly average January is -7 degrees. Most average precipitation January 8.3 inches. Air quality 26 percent better than national average. Pollution index is 14% better than national average! That said I observed -54 degrees in North Pole Alaske! That's not far from Eielson.

I remember that cold snap well, the temp at Freddies on Airport way in Fbks was showing -65*. I think that reading was accurate.
Ungodly cold.
During that snap I met a fella walking down the street with his wife. He was in a windbreaker and ball cap, she was parka'd out. I had to stop and ask him how he dealt with the cold so woefully under-dressed, he explained that he was full blooded Eskimo and it simply didn't bother him. His wife was from the lower 48 and like the rest of us needed max cold weather gear.

I lived in North Pole/Eielson from 95-99 and then again between 2002 and 2010 with a few stints living in Delta Junction. It’s true that the temps fluctuate a bunch just a few miles this way or that way in the interior. Some low spots are always colder, I could leave North Pole at 5 am to go to work in Delta and it might be 45 below and I would hit spots along the Richardson where my windshield would start frosting up and I could feel the heat not feeling as warm and look at the outside temp gauge in the truck and it would rear error and then a few miles latter suddenly go back to reading -48 and the windshield would start thawing again. North Pole had some holes like on Plack Road where it could easily be 15 deg colder than in town. I’ve heard stories and testimonials too many time to count where sub -70 was reported in different parts of the interior but I don’t think most people even had accurate enough thermometers to know for sure. I can attest to it being a cold son of a bitch anytime it got below -50 it didn’t matter anymore!

I was at B Battery (Site Summit) on the hill outside of Anchorage/Ft. Richardson. On a still night with no wind we could get a temperature inversion and it would actually be warmer at 4000 feet than down in Anchorage. The problem is we had very few nights where we had no wind. -35 was common. -40 every so often. With the wind chill factor we could go -75 pretty easy. (December 31, 1974) We did not get as cold as the interior in a head to head low but we could beat the snot out of a wind chill factor 2000 feet above the tree line. That really sucked if it was your night to walk around a missile section.

kwg

We had a rookie sign in to our office at Eielson in January. About a week after he arrived it hit -55F. We convinced him to walk outside with a hot cup of coffee and toss it in the air. Kapoof, the coffee disappeared. Fun trick.

Butch, I got internet access finally last week, but now to access any AF Weather sites you have to have accounts. Since I am no longer in the weather career field, I can't get access now. Sorry about that.

My favorite cousin was weather in the Air Force, did the civilian thing on ship for several years and then retired from the weather service in Oklahoma City.
A great job for him.