Originally posted by: jumpr
Originally posted by: jjzelinski
I live on an AFB outside of Fairbanks Alaska, its ~-33F right now. Life is spent dashing from one warm building or vehicle to another. It's not that bad really; you will learn ways to compensate for cold very quickly. Home heating is interesting; on this base they use a network of steam pipes that circulates in baseboard heaters of all the residences and buildings. Very efficient.
I'll check back on this post in a bit to add some more.
Interesting. Yes, steam heating is very efficient; my college uses a network of steam pipes to heat its buildings. All the pipes use steam captured from the central power plant's turbines, which use steam to turn then, which creates electricity for campus. It's approximately 75% efficient, IIRC from my tour...which is very, very good.
That's exactly what they've arranged here. We get really interesting phenomena up here due to the extreme cold, such as:
Ice Fog - For about 30ft above ground over the entire area there is a dense layer of fog; Ice Fog. It should really be called Ice *S*mog because this area gets incredibly polluted during the winter due to the three or four power plants in the area, cars constantly running, gas heated homes, etc... What exacerbates it so much is that the air is so cold and dense it traps EVERYTHING in that 30 ft blanket. In the Air Traffic Control Tower I occasionally work in it can be perfectly clear up there, whereas on the ground it is a foggy mess. It's beautiful at night, though. Light is reflected upwards from all bright lights sources hundreds of feet in to the sky making pillars of light all over the base. This is due to the ice crystals the fog is composed of.
New Rods every winter - This is figurative and literal; figurative in the sense that the roads are totally iced over by about 5 to 6 inches. Travel is very slow, but any car can manage up here. Stopping and starting takes forever, wrecks are common place.
Extreme cold does not go well with nose hairs - Every breath you take freezes your snot on contact, very odd to experience. Feels like Elmer?s glue that softens and hardens repeatedly.
Daylight - Very little during the winter. Here's a funny story; bought a new watch, liked the way it looked, only $40 to replace the POS I've been wearing since basic that died. Turns out its solar powered, the irony did not escape me
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is real PITA up here, everyone gets it (at least most it seems like.) People suffer from this form of depression because the area plainly sucks @$$, in addition to the lack of sunlight. Sunlight is necessary for the production of serotonin, which becomes melatonin, which is necessary to sleep. The imbalance can go either way, but most feel sluggish and depressed. Some become anxious.
Aurora Borealis - Must be seen to be believed. You've seen pictures but to see it in motion is something else entirely. It's not slow at all; it's quick like dancing green/purple/white/orange fire. And there's no guarantee it will last more than a few minutes.
I'll add more as I ponder all the other unique characteristics.
**Edited for grammer and spelling
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