While most of the country has had a pretty frigid winter, in Anchorage, it has been unseasonably warm. In fact a few weeks ago, it got as warm as 50 degrees, and all the snow melted. The Iditarod organizers were in a frenzy and thought they would have to move the start to Fairbanks (an 8 hour drive from Anchorage on a good day) or change the race route altogether. Luckily it started snowing again, so the race will go on as planned -- they'll just have to pump some snow and groom the trail leading to a couple checkpoints. And they'll definitely need to pump 4th St. full of snow for the ceremonial start on Saturday.
Above is the weather forecast for the next several days. We'll definitely be wearing ski clothes, but it won't be windy so it should be quite pleasant.
Daylight is a funny thing here too. December 21st, the winter solstice, is called the "shortest day of the year" because the sun is only up a few hours that day. This is has to do with the position of the Earth and the sun. So then, 6 months later, on June 21st, the summer solstice, the sun is up most of the day. So now, since it's almost March, days and nights are about equal. Here is the daylight calendar for the next several days. You'll see Anchorage is gaining about 5 minutes of daylight each day.
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