Adjective: Greenish hue, becoming green
Photo courtesy of the University of Alaska – Fairbanks
Tag Archives: aurora
The Northern Lights
We have had some brilliant displays of the aurora here in Interior Alaska the past couple of weeks. Even now, after all these years in Alaska, the northern lights never fail to stop me in my tracks. Which makes the past fortnight all the more enjoyable, because it has not been forty degrees below zero when I did stand outside to watch them light up the sky.
Interestingly, retired Professor Charles Deehr of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, who now puts up the UAF Geophysical Institute’s aurora forecast, stated that the recent intense activity is only 1/3 of the level it reached at its peak in 1959.
Wow.
I’ve seen some incredible aurora displays, which really piques my interest at what it would look like amped up by three times.
1959 in Alaska, must have been quite the experience, on far more levels than just the one. I have no doubt, that I would have liked it even more.
A Revisit
13 December 2006
The aurora flowed like a great river;
an inverted Yukon meandering across the sky.
Time lapsed. Banks eroded. The brilliant green
river changed its course.
Then drought hit, and the powerful flow was reduced
to a faint puddle, a dim shimmer.
The sky was quiet.
With an explosion, the aurora returned as a wall of thunderheads.
Imposing. Inspiring. Pulsing.
The lower layer of the wall of light was magenta.
The aurora’s lightning.
Thin lines of green light dropped down from the glowing storm.
Like sheets of rain falling on the distant hills.
Photo courtesy of the Daily News-Miner
A Good Way to Start the New Year
It’s a rare event in January, for me to look at the temperatures across the country, and see that Fairbanks is 20 degrees warmer than Minneapolis and only 20 degrees cooler than San Antonio. I was able to see that beautiful trifecta tonight.
The temp in Minneapolis: -10 degs
in Fairbanks: +10 degs
in San Antonio: +30 degs
To top it all off, the skies were clear here, and the aurora was humming across the horizon.
Priceless.
Winter Knocks
After near record rainfall for an October storm on Sunday and Monday, the skies cleared, the northern lights filled the sky and the temps dropped down to a very hard freeze last night. It was sunny and slightly above freezing today, so I took the Bug to the jobsite for one last seasonal run. I topped off the tank on the way home, adding some SeaFoam, then took off the roof rack and pulled over the car cover. I’m guessing that Bug Season is over for the year with snow on the agenda for this weekend.
The aurora gave a phenomenal show last night, absolutely covering the sky above Fairbanks. We’re down to a Level 3 tonight on the Aurora Forecast Scale.
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