93 and Sunny in Fairbanks

It was Sunday afternoon, August 15th and we were tooling around with the top down. It felt warm and balmy. We were driving back toward town on Airport Way when when we saw the answer to our question, "How hot is it anyway?" I took this quick photo, just to show that we can have a few warm ones here, too.

As I am writing this, (August 18th) we can expect the sun to set at 9:59 this evening. That's already a big difference from our first day here, in June when the sun set at about 1/2 hour past midnight and rose again at about 3:00 in the morning. By August 31st, the sun will set at around 9:10 and rise again at about 6:30 The last few days we have seen the August rains (the 2nd wettest month) and a sudden drops in temperature. Today, it's around 55 degrees.

We still have some shopping to do before the extremely cold temperatures arrive and we will finish "winterizing" the car tomorrow. According to the locals, extreme temperatures last a few weeks at a time, just as they would in places like Minnesota where David grew up and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where I grew up. I'm looking forward to making comparisons to winter in Fairbanks to winter in Eau Claire.

The list below was found on the Weather Channel's web site:

• The average warmest month is July.

• The highest recorded temperature was 94°F in 1991.

• The average coolest month is January.

• The lowest recorded temperature was -66°F in 1961.

• July is the average wettest month.