Definitely Chilly
It was below zero this morning when I took Tygey out to do his business. I had to massively bundle up - which I haven’t had to do in the past two weeks. It was certainly not below zero in Florida or Seattle or even Denver. Heck, yesterday in Seattle I noticed that their cherry blossoms were in full bloom. Argh…
This morning’s headline in the Daily News was, On Track for the Coldest March on Record. Poor Homer is socked in by ice. They may have to cancel their Winter Salmon Derby because the ships can’t leave harbor.
The Fairbanks Daily News Miner also has a great article entitled, Alaska Weather Gets No Respect. It’s a great discussion of the huge impact Alaska’s weather has on the Lower 48 and how difficult it is to accurately forecast Alaska weather:
Alaska offers forecasters a number of challenges. For one thing, there simply aren’t enough weather stations in this state, especially considering the sheer size of the area. Because of the difficulty in setting up and maintaining weather stations in remote areas, even the simplest weather information is hard to come by, Newby said. For example, it’s normally a simple matter to measure snow depth — you just have to put a measuring stick in the snow — but doing that in a remote area becomes quite a chore when you have to first get a person out there.
The computer models use that sort of data collected at weather stations to figure out a forecast. The lack of weather stations means a lack of data, which in turn makes the computer software work harder to fill in the blanks and often results in errors in the resulting forecast.
Alaska’s extreme temperatures also make it difficult to pin down a forecast.
“On any given day the difference between the high temperature and the low temperature can be 40 to 50 degrees,” Newby said. That variability makes it very difficult to give a precise idea of what the temperature is going to be like.
Hello. I am 
It’s all snowy and icky here in the Rotten Apple too. I want my spring back!