The Weather Report in Alaska

Now that fall has arrived, we've just seen our first below 40 degree day where we're parked in northwest Washington state. It's cold enough that our heat pump in the motor home has stopped providing heat, and we've switched to LP.

Meanwhile, back in Alaska, it's 39 degrees in Fairbanks, 34 degrees in Anchorage, and 30 degrees way out in Nome. It's 28 and snowing in Prudhoe Bay, where the ice road truckers will be heading soon if they have not already started for the winter. It's 39 degrees in Valdez, and 36 in Seward. Adak reports in at 41 degrees. Tropical Juneau is a balmy 43 degrees.

The previous paragraph is fairly typical reporting for the average Alaskan weatherman or woman. I was somewhat surprised in watching the weather reports on TV up there, because they report and predict the weather for the entire state, every time. Most of the TV stations in Alaska are in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. There are a handful of low power TV stations elsewhere, like Homer and Seldovia. For such a big state, that's not a lot of coverage.

From what I can discover, Alaska only has one cable TV provider, GCI. I saw a GCI store in Homer, and could not figure out from the outside what they did. They provide cable TV in many small communities, as well as school links, Internet and long distance phone services, and medical network connections. So many little towns get the Alaska TV stations by cable.

Dish and DirectTV also provide TV service to Alaskans. Most users had 1.5 meter diameter dishes, and they appear to point into the ground when you see them. The satellite providers carry the Alaska TV stations as locals, so the few stations in the big cities are available throughout Alaska.

So, if you live in Alaska and watch TV, you're most likely to be watching a station from Fairbanks, Anchorage and/or Juneau. As a result, "local" news and weather reporting will carry stories for the whole state, not just Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau.

So how big is the territory covered by Alaska? Alaska is about about 3 times the size of Texas. If you overlay a map of Alaska on the lower 48 states, and put the panhandle with Juneau down in Georgia, the Aleutians will stretch to California, and Prudhoe Bay will be in North Dakota.

Now think of the poor weatherman in Alaska. If you overlaid his job on the lower 48, he would be reporting for Jacksonville, Atlanta, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Denver, Chicago and perhaps Los Angeles, all in the same 5 minute forecast. And you know that the weather across that area varies considerably, so a little detail is often required.

And just to add to the problem, and to justify Sarah Palin's remark about "seeing Russia", the extended weather forecast for Alaska often includes noting the current conditions in Siberia, just 50 some odd miles from Alaska, because whatever weather is happening in Siberia today is likely to be in Nome tomorrow, and Anchorage the day after.

To be fair, the weather options are far fewer in Alaska than in the lower 48. Tornadoes are unheard of, as are hurricanes. Blizzards are fairly common. Smoke is often in the forecast, given the number of forest fires that occur up there. Heat is limited. Cold, rain, and snow occur in extreme overabundance. Whereas Fairbanks averages about 11 inches of rain per year (almost a desert), Ketchikan gets 162 inches. Barrow gets 28 inches of snow, and Valdez gets 290. The Harding Ice Field reportedly gets 400 inches of snow, but nobody lives there..

Occasionally, the sun comes out. Alaskans don't have a good handle on dealing with this condition. As they say up there, Alsakans don't tan, they thaw.