Here is a bit of what keeps us going through the winter on the Northern Plains.  We are experiencing our third major snow event in the last two weeks, which has been punctuated by a couple of cold snaps in the range or -30 to -40 degrees.  You folks in Alaska can roll your eyes, because if you live at Healy or further north, this would be a normal winter.  Just to note, however: we have had several days during which is was 20 or more degrees colder here than at McMurdo Station on Ross Island, Antarctica.

When I was preparing to leave California to live here, my father asked me where it was to which I was moving.  I told him, and he was thoughtful for a moment before responding, “I think the only thing between that place and the North Pole is a barbed-wire fence.”

My father was a wise man.

(Photos via NWS.gov and Face Book)