Is It Summertime Yet?

Wow oh wow, has it ever been freezing cold. This past week it was in the -30's, then it warmed up into the teen's for a couple days. While it was warmer, we got a couple more inches of snow. Now tonight, it is currently -33. Ahlapa!! Real Cold!! Makes me want to stay inside and not go anywhere! I've been working days this past week, and will be again next week. Come into work at 7:30am and work til about 4:30pm. I take students to Rec Center in the mornings and have a PE class with them, then teach a Life Skills class, and after that, for the remainder of the day, I teach a Post Secondary Ed class, helping seniors fill out college applications, scholarship applications, etc. I am at work right now, working today until a little after 10pm, then back to work at 7:30am, not sure how that happened. Students are all watching a movie right now. That's all for now.

Groundhog Day

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NOME AK 845 AM AKST MON FEB 2 2009 ...FIRST TIME THIS WINTER NOME'S TEMPERATURE DROPS TO MINUS 30... ON THIS GROUNDHOG DAY 2009...NOME'S TEMPERATURE DIPPED TO MINUS 30, THE COLDEST TEMPERATURE OF THE SEASON. INCIDENTALLY, LAST WINTER'S COLDEST TEMPERATURE WAS MINUS 33, AND IT TOO WAS RECORDED ON GROUNDHOG DAY 2008 AS WELL AS THE DAY AFTER ON FEBRUARY 3D.

January 2009 Weather

Noticed when I posted this earlier, it cut a bunch out, so here it is again, our weather for the month of January 2009. PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NOME AK 755 AM AKST SUN FEB 1 2009 ...NOME MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 2009... THE FIRST MONTH OF 2009 SAW TWO DISTINCT PERIODS OF COLD, DRY WEATHER SANDWICHED AROUND A PERIOD OF WARMER, WETTER CONDITIONS. A COLD, ARCTIC AIRMASS SETTLED OVER THE REGION IN LATE DECEMBER AND PERSISTED THROUGH THE FIRST 11 DAYS OF THE MONTH. TEMPERATURES DURING THIS TIME REMAINED BELOW ZERO, AND AVERAGED IN THE NEGATIVE TEENS AND 20S. DURING THE NEXT 15 DAYS, A MAJOR PATTERN SHIFT BROUGHT WARMER TEMPERATURES AND SNOWY WEATHER TO NOME. WARM SOUTHERLY FLOW RAISED MAX TEMPERATURES TO THE TEENS AND 20S ABOVE ZERO, AND EVEN BROUGHT TEMPERATURES ABOVE THE FREEZING MARK FOR TWO DAYS. THE FINAL FIVE DAYS OF THE MONTH SAW TEMPERATURES PLUMMET BELOW ZERO ONCE AGAIN. THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH WAS 36 DEGREES ON THE 16TH, WHILE THE LOWEST WAS NEGATIVE 28 ON THE 3RD. TWENTY-ONE DAYS HAD LOW TEMPERATURES BELOW ZERO, WITH ELEVEN OF THOSE DAYS DROPPING TO NEGATIVE 20 OR BELOW. THE AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE WAS ONE DEGREE, AND THIS WAS 4.8 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL FOR JANUARY. OTHER THAN A DUSTING OF SNOW ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, THE FIRST ELEVEN DAYS OF THE MONTH WERE DRY. A MAJOR PATTERN SHIFT BROUGHT TWO STRONG STORM SYSTEMS, WHICH PRODUCED STRONG GUSTY WINDS, BLOWING SNOW, POOR VISIBILITIES, AND EVEN A BRIEF SHOT OF RAIN WHEN TEMPERATURES CLIMBED ABOVE FREEZING. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF AT LEAST AN INCH WERE RECORDED EACH DAY FROM THE 12TH THROUGH THE 16TH, WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF 4.7 INCHES REPORTED IN THE 15TH. THE MONTH ROUNDED OUT WITH JUST WEAK FLURRIES AND SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS, WITH DAILY TOTALS BEING NO MORE THAN A HALF INCH. THE TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH WAS 15.6 INCHES, BRINGING THE CURRENT SNOW DEPTH TO 28 INCHES, AND THE TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE SEASON TO 39.7 INCHES.

Boo Cold

Currently it is -26 outside, so very cold. I spent the day inside, didn't really want to get out in this coldness. Starting to think I may be ready for summer, but that's still at least four months away. My Christmas lights are still shining pretty! Had lots of travel last week, went to Elim, Teller, and Wales. Kept me busy. Going to be on a different work schedule the next two weeks, switching from evenings to days. This means getting used to working from 7:30am-4pm instead of 2pm-11pm. So, it is now 10:30pm, which means I need to be getting to bed so I'll be at least halfway ready to get up early in the morning.

January 2009 Weather

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NOME AK
755 AM AKST SUN FEB 1 2009

...NOME MONTHLY WEATHER SUMMARY FOR JANUARY 2009...

THE FIRST MONTH OF 2009 SAW TWO DISTINCT PERIODS OF COLD, DRY WEATHER
SANDWICHED AROUND A PERIOD OF WARMER, WETTER CONDITIONS.

A COLD, ARCTIC AIRMASS SETTLED OVER THE REGION IN LATE DECEMBER AND
PERSISTED THROUGH THE FIRST 11 DAYS OF THE MONTH. TEMPERATURES DURING
THIS TIME REMAINED BELOW ZERO, AND AVERAGED IN THE NEGATIVE TEENS AND
20S. DURING THE NEXT 15 DAYS, A MAJOR PATTERN SHIFT BROUGHT WARMER
TEMPERATURES AND SNOWY WEATHER TO NOME. WARM SOUTHERLY FLOW RAISED
MAX TEMPERATURES TO THE TEENS AND 20S ABOVE ZERO, AND EVEN BROUGHT
TEMPERATURES ABOVE THE FREEZING MARK FOR TWO DAYS. THE FINAL FIVE
DAYS OF THE MONTH SAW TEMPERATURES PLUMMET BELOW ZERO ONCE AGAIN. THE
HIGHEST TEMPERATURE FOR THE MONTH WAS 36 DEGREES ON THE 16TH, WHILE
THE LOWEST WAS NEGATIVE 28 ON THE 3RD. TWENTY-ONE DAYS HAD LOW
TEMPERATURES BELOW ZERO, WITH ELEVEN OF THOSE DAYS DROPPING TO
NEGATIVE 20 OR BELOW. THE AVERAGE MONTHLY TEMPERATURE WAS ONE DEGREE,
AND THIS WAS 4.8 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL FOR JANUARY.

OTHER THAN A DUSTING OF SNOW ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, THE FIRST ELEVEN DAYS
OF THE MONTH WERE DRY. A MAJOR PATTERN SHIFT BROUGHT TWO STRONG STORM
SYSTEMS, WHICH PRODUCED STRONG GUSTY WINDS, BLOWING SNOW, POOR
VISIBILITIES, AND EVEN A BRIEF SHOT OF RAIN WHEN TEMPERATURES CLIMBED
ABOVE FREEZING. SNOWFALL AMOUNTS OF AT LEAST AN INCH WERE RECORDED
EACH DAY FROM THE 12TH THROUGH THE 16TH, WITH THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF
4.7 INCHES REPORTED IN THE 15TH. THE MONTH ROUNDED OUT WITH JUST WEAK
FLURRIES AND SCATTERED SNOW SHOWERS, WITH DAILY TOTALS BEING NO MORE
THAN A HALF INCH. THE TOTAL SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH WAS 15.6 INCHES,
BRINGING THE CURRENT SNOW DEPTH TO 28 INCHES, AND THE TOTAL SNOWFALL
FOR THE SEASON TO 39.7 INCHES.

Skin Sewing Class

Tonight I had my first skin sewing class. I started making an ornament, a star. It is made of cow skin and I am beading pink and blue around it. Because I am not Native, I cannot sew with seal skin. I can buy things already made, but to purchase the skin and use myself, I cannot do. Hopefully the picture I am trying to attach of my ornament and me will show up.

Good Times

We have so much snow, and is it ever fun! Yesterday afternoon was fun playing in my backyard. There are parts of the yard if I would be standing on the ground the snow would go way over my head it is so deep. I'll try to get a picture posted later of me making a snow angel, or at least trying to. I am now traveling to three villages at school counselor, Elim, Teller, and Wales. Flying out in the morning for my first trip to the school in Elim. I've landed there before, but have never visited. Going to be a busy week traveling to three schools. It is nice to be having a change for this week. The first week after the New Year, we had Junior High students, then the last two weeks we've had High School. Three weeks in a row with students wore me out. The other weekend I worked both Saturday and Sunday, so it was nice this past weekend to have a complete break from work. I even left my computer at the office! Tonight I start a class, skin sewing. Going to be making ornaments and mittens out of furs and skins. I am really looking forward to it. Just hoping the room has good ventilation because I am allergic to some furs. I'll try to remember to take my camera along and get some pictures. Maybe if I do really well with this, I could make myself a pair of mukluks (boots). I really want a pair of those, but they are pretty spendy. Well, I'd better get home from work. Need to catch up on laundry so I'll have some clean clothes to travel with. Also going to make something for dinner with some ground musk ox someone gave me yesterday, yum yum.

temperature

Yesterday there was a huge temperature difference, high was 35 and low was 0. Current temperature is 5. Sure warmed up from -28 a couple weeks ago.

Snowstorm!

Wow, the past couple of days we have had a snowstorm. Got about 8 inches of snow. It is also pretty slick out due to the temp warming up for a bit. When I drove out to work last night, there were several times I couldn't see anything, complete whiteout. Thankfully it seems to be over now, clearing up and roads plowed. I still have my Christmas lights up as the days are still fairly short. I will probably leave them up until March. Really enjoying living in my own house, the backyard is so full of snow! I need to get out on my snowmachine sometime soon, a friend borrowed it over Christmas and had it out hunting two times, two musk ox. I am planning a trip to Anchorage for a weekend next month, looking forward to shopping! I had another village added to my travels as school counselor, I am now traveling to Teller, Wales, and Elim. Keeps me very busy! The year is off to a great start!

Winter Is On The Way!

Wow, the last few weeks have been so busy! In the past 6 weeks I have been to Teller 2x, Wales 2x, Anchorage, and Unalakleet. So very ready for things to start slowing down! We've been getting some snow over the last couple weeks, just a few inches though so far. The sea is beginning to get slushy and the high temps have been in the low 20s. Winter is definitely on the way and I am ready. Hoping to soon be able to get my snowmachine out and start riding! My house is really coming along, enjoying the life of owning my own home, or the banks home for now I guess. Right now at work we have 25 students, they are here studying Art, Aviation, and Driver's Ed. They keep me hopping! Well, it is almost 2am here, so I guess it is time for bed.

Alaska On TV

CNN made a trip to Little Diomede, Alaska. Here is the link to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mg0l-PinkZE Also, Discovery Channel is running a series on the Iditarod. View details at: http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/iditarod/iditarod.html Particularly read about Rick Holt, I used to work with him when he worked for Bering Strait School District. http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/iditarod/bios/holt.html

Days Are Getting Shorter

Wow, is it really that time of year again, shorter days, frost, cold... Right now, 2:30pm Thursday, it is 35 degrees. Daylight today of 11 hours 8 minutes, loss of 6 minutes 32 seconds from yesterday. Possibility of snow tonight, tomorrow, next few days. Where did the summer go? What little of a summer we had this year. But, the sun is shining and the Northern Lights were out last night when I was driving home from work. Here's to the start of another winter, snow, parka's, snowmachines, blustery wind...

Lots of Traveling

Our first session ended last Friday, had 21 students. I, along with three chaperones, will be taking 19 of those students to Anchorage October 5-8. We will attend the college fair there, where over 200 schools from around the world will be represented, as well as visit the local university and a couple vocational schools. It is always a fun trip. This past Monday evening I flew up to Wales, where I am school counselor at this year. Was there until yesterday morning. I was suppose to go to Little Diomede yesterday afternoon, but the chopper was still out being worked on. I could see Little Diomede, which belongs to the USA, from Wales. Even better, it was clear enough I could also see Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia. There are about 3 miles between Little and Big Diomede. Today, I am taking off work. Then tomorrow and Saturday I plan to go to Teller. I will work at the school on Friday and then Saturday attend their Cultural Festival, watch the dancing, it is always fun. Well, time to start getting ready, going to meet a friend for lunch.

A New School Year!

We started back to work at NACTEC last week with in-service all week. This week, back to traveling. Monday and Tuesday I went to Teller. It was a good trip, I really enjoy going out there. Today and tomorrow I am going to Gambell, which is out on St. Lawrence Island, approximately 30 miles from Russia! Hopefully it will be clear skies for a nice plane ride out. Next week I plan to go to Wales. I am traveling to recruit NACTEC students. Along with that, I am school counselor this year at Teller and Wales. This is my fourth year as school counselor in Teller and my first in Wales. The weather here has been interesting. We had a wet, cold summer. Then it got absolutely beautiful out when it was time to start back to work. This summer, we broke heat records twice and a cold record once. Sounds kind of funny. This past Sunday was one of the days we broke a heat record, it hit 70. Right now at 8:45am it is 29 degrees. Brrr... Well, I'd better finish packing and get myself to the airport.

Weathered in at Brevig Mission

This week has been a reminder to never put too much hope into plans made. I was scheduled to fly to Brevig on Monday morning, then on to Wales to overnight Tuesday, and then scheduled to take the helicopter over to Little Diomede and back to Nome today, Wednesday. Well, my flight Monday morning was canceled due to weather, but I did make it to Brevig then Monday night. Above are a couple pictures taken when I arrived, I was still in my snow pants. The one little girl was making a face when the picture was taken. I email with a school group in North Carolina and they sent me Hattie, the travel bear. Hattie is traveling with me and then we write and let the students know where we go and what we do. The students here really love Hattie! Anyway, last night my flight from Brevig to Wales was canceled due to weather, and here it is, Wednesday afternoon, and I am still in Brevig. There goes my plans for the rest of my travel, all because weather can be so unpredictable. The helicopter only flies to Diomede on Wednesdays. The ice there is not frozen enough yet for them to have the ice runway. They are hoping by the end of February now. The weather has been so strange this winter, so cold, then warming up, just back and forth. Right now I am just hanging out here in Brevig, hoping to make it back to Nome tonight. Guess we will wait and see. And, there is always another time to try and make it out to Diomede, which is only three miles from Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia! I just got back from taking a little walk and although it is still snowing, the sky looks like it is starting to clear up some. Hopefully...

Snow and Blizzards and Whiteouts, Oh My!

Wow, we have been having quite the weather the last while. Blizzards and whiteouts! But still we don't close up here, still had school. I was told today we have gotten between 12-14" of snow the last couple of days. Today I went out to my truck, started it, and discovered the heat/ac quit, so no air to defrost my windows. I tried to wipe them with my gloves, but that didn't work so well. I went back in my apartment and called my boss, Jeff. He said the police had said no one is supposed to be out on the roads right then anyway. He came in to town about an hour later and picked me up. We stopped at the store to pick up some groceries for our 24 Jr. High students. After we got things picked up, the store closed up. It is very rare things close up. Got out to school, and no electric. They said the electric was going off and on all day, and it finally shut off for good. Came back on then this even for around an hour, then the utility company stopped out and said they were getting ready to shut it off to work on some bad lines. They didn't know when we would get it back. Luckily I had picked up lots of lunch meat in case that happened. So, what a night we had, rowdy students and no electric. I was so on edge by the end of the night. I had brought along my overnight bag just in case I would get stuck out there, but thankfully one cab was running and he brought a worker out, so I took the cab back in to town so I could go home. Now for some sleep...

Iditawalk 2008

The Iditarod Dog Sled Race is 1049 miles from Anchorage to Nome. There is also an event Iditawalk 2008, where you walk 35 minutes a day for thirty days between February 1 to March 31, for a total of 1049 minutes. If you are interested in participating, here is the website: http://www.idita-walk.com/idw/index.asp

Cold in Nome

Temperatures here in northwestern Alaska have been freezing cold the last while. Saturday the low was -30 and yesterday the low was -27. On top of that, there was a little wind, which makes it feel even colder. I have really been noticing the cold, after arriving back in Nome from spending a week in Florida over Christmas, where temperatures were in the 80s. Right now I am sitting in my recliner, drinking a cup of hot tea, trying to persuade myself to go outside so I can go to work. We are expecting a blizzard tonight, to start sometime around midnight with near zero visibility. Don't expect for anything to be canceled though, it is very rare for something like that to happen. Well, I'd better go ahead and take off for work now.

BSSD In-service

We flew into Unalakleet this past Monday and will be here until Thursday afternoon. Bering Strait School District is having in-service this week. I thought it was cold in Nome when we left, but it is freezing here! The breeze is what really makes it cold. I was glad I had pulled out and wore my winter coat, snowpants, and boots. BSSD has fifteen different schools, plus us at NACTEC. There are a lot of people! The school is full of air mattresses, pillows, sleeping bags, and suitcases. I am in a workshop on blogging. Today is the second day and it has been a great learning experience! I am working on setting up a blog for NACTEC. I hope to have students write about their experiences at NACTEC on the website. After it is all set up, I will add the link to my blog. Monday evening we had a BSSD first. A friend of mine, Lisie, and her fiance, Ben, decided to get married at the in-service. So, we had a wedding! Lisie and I both moved to Alaska and started working for BSSD at the same time. She was my first BSSD friend. She had a special seat for me during the wedding, right up front. They both listed people out they would like to have sitting up front, and I was the only one on her list, made me feel very special and important! After the wedding, there was wedding cake and ice cream. They both teach in Savoonga, which is located on St. Lawrence Island. Last night I went with some friends to Peace on Earth, a local pizza place. We had ice cream while we were waiting on our pizza. It was pretty good. They also have a ping pong table there, so we enjoyed challenging each other in that. Most villages do not have a restaurant, but Unalakleet is a larger village which houses the BSSD district office, so there are a few more things here than you would find in the other villages. There was also a group here last night, Pamyua. They are a Yupik musical group. They describe their music as tribal funk and world music. They were fun to listen to and watch. Well, I had better start paying attention here.

Lunar Eclipse

At 1:50am, I am in a deep sleep... The ringing of the telephone wakes me up and I think, who would be calling me at this hour? I pick up the phone and it is my mom on the other end of the line. Living so far from my family, I have a moment of panic thinking what happened? My mom immediately says, go look out your window, there is a lunar eclipse. I look out my bedroom window, but I don't see anything except the cross on top of Old Saint Joe's Church. Mom says, look out to the west. I stand there thinking, with my 2am brain, which way is west? After a moment it registers, I have been looking west. So, I proceed to go outside and look up and around west, north, and east. Still no luck... I go back into the apartment thinking, we should be able to see the same moon, where is it? I decide to walk to my front window, and there it is! South over the Bering Sea. And look... it is a lunar eclipse! For the educational side of things, a lunar eclipse happens when the earth gets directly between the sun and the moon, blocking the light that normally reflects off the moon. Me, who always forgets to have my camera out, actually thinks I should try and take a picture. I lay the telephone down and pick up the camera. I get a lovely view of the eclipse in the viewfinder. However, when I click for the picture to take, it doesn't turn out. I think, I hope the photographer for the Nome Nugget is up with a camera... With this spectacular sight occurring, my mind wanders back to August 1999, Romania. I was there, with Habitat for Humanity, and had the opportunity to experience a total solar eclipse. We were standing on the side of a mountain, surrounded by nothing. I remember seeing darkness, almost as a line, coming towards us very quickly. Then, being engulfed in total and complete darkness. This darkness lasted for a few minutes, then light began to come towards us. Thus far, the solar eclipse is one of the most beautiful, spectacular, awesome, and unbelievable experiences of my life. It is indescribable. Now the time has come for me to take one more peek out my window before heading back to bed for some sleep before morning. Good night and may each of you feel as blessed as I do right now, here in this moment, in this time...