Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

Folks in most places figure if it gets down to 4F degrees, it's cold... and they fully expect that to include a "winter storm". In Barrow Alaska, at 71° 18" North and right on the Arctic Ocean, things are different in February. If it warms up to 4F, then there probably is one heck of a storm blowing!

This shot, and two others I'll post, was taken about 4:30 PM, which is just as the sun is setting, on Friday, February 12th at a time when the National Weather Bureau was reporting 1/4 mile visibility with blowing snow and East winds gusting to 40 MPH. Visibility here looks a little better than that, probably because this is on the west side of Browerville and there are 6 or 7 streets of houses blocking the drifting snow.

One effect is not too many people want to go driving around if they can avoid it, primarily because it's hard to see and easy to get stuck in a snow drift. But snowmachine and foot traffic doesn't change much.

Here's a fellow headed down the street towards the local Stuaqpuk ("big store" in the Inupiaq language).

Easy Street

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LarryN Loc: Portland OR & Carbondale, CO

Great shots. Like the way the man is hunched over against the wind & cold, no doubt. :thumbup:

Voss

They're all good, but this one is the best. The lights add a nice touch of color and a bit of warmth. They help to take some chill off the scene.

Apaflo Loc: Anchorage, Alaska

I like this one the best. I went out with the intention of shooting this particular shot! Just to post here. But... there's about 50 years of history attached to this photograph for me!

I have an image in my head, and somewhere one of my family has the actual print, of a picture taken in the late 1960's in Bethel Alaska. There used to be a Moravian church on Mission Road about 3/8 of a mile from the banks of the Kuskokwim River. There was a boardwalk from the river to the church. The picture was of my wife's father's brother, Owen David (known to us as Ap'a Owen), as he walked along that boardwalk in a blowing blizzard just like we are having here today. Owen was about 60 years old at the time and lived long enough that my children remember that he existed.

So I set out to take "that" picture, again. Lot's of emotional baggage, because he was a very special person.

LarryN Loc: Portland OR & Carbondale, CO

Thanks for sharing that with me. I also enjoy hearing the "back" stories. That sounds like a special one. :-D