Another Cold Snap

Tanana Valley from Gilmore Trail

The photo kind of says it all, except that the inversion wasn’t strong enough to make it a lot warmer up on Gilmore Trail. It was about -40 F in the valley; about -30 up on the hillside. You are looking south across the Tanana Valley. The large plume is North Pole Refinery. If there were less haze and no clouds, you’d be looking at the central Alaska Range in the background, with the North Pole area in front.

For readers not from Alaska, North Pole is about 14 miles southeast of Fairbanks. The pall of haze – technically, ice fog – roughly tracks the Richardson Highway and the North Pole area.

The photo was taken at 10:57 AM. The sun has just risen from the gap between Aurora Peak and Meteor Peak.

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