Is Summer Over in Alaska?
 

I'm hearing really awful weather reports from kin who live outside of Anchorage in the Chugach.

jackal; what's going on?

Termination dust yesterday.We have not hit 70 degrees this summer.
So yes the summer that never was is over.

From a PM I just sent to an FTer visiting soon:

The absolutely horrible weather we've been having this, er, "summer" is the prime topic of conversational small talk this year. I love this place, but I'm not sure how much longer I can handle the lack of sun...

People shouldn't be making the mistake of confusing Anchorage for Alaska. (Though you can drive to Alaska from there :)

Well, I can see Alaska from my work, and it doesn't look any clearer over there... ;)

Thanks jackal!

I am getting termination dust reports from family members in Alaska including one who has been deep back in the Chugach very recently.

We are all very worried about one family member who has drifted into a deep depression since May when it didn't quit raining. Her husband is extremely attentive to her.

She starts out every day fairly well but by afternoon just sits and stares out a window and goes to bed early. Yes she is getting medical help.

Alaska can make you or break you.

I've worked in a windowless office for a long time. I think Alaska prepared me to do so.

People who are dreaming of going to Alaska to get big oil production jobs don't know about the actual dark sides of Alaskan life.

by comparison our temps in North Texas are twice the temps my family is reporting. When I went to be last night it was still 90 degrees.

Excuse my ignorance, oldpenny and akdude, but what is "termination dust?" Thanks.

Termination Dust is the first snows of the season. The snow starts to build up on the tops of mountains and gradually shifts down to the lower elevations like sugar. For Alaskans this means both good and bad things. It means the end of mosquitos and mobs of tourists, but also the end of long hours of daylight and the coming of winter darkness.

Seeing Termination Dust makes some people happy and others sad. It is very early this year.

Thank you. My wife and I were just saying that we are glad we went when we did, in mid-June. The weather was fine at that time.

Just telephoned Alaska again as I am very concerned about one person who is suffering from depression. If you are having a hard time with the lack of summer in Alaska, the coming of Termination Dust is just more gloom.

Thanks to Heaven for cell phones and having plenty of minutes!

I'm glad you had a fine trip as well.

Makes me wonder about all the talk about global warming. Maybe the glaciers held their own this year.

Oldpenny you've hit the nail on the head.I'm both happy and sad.Happy that ski season could be that much sooner and the turistas may be gone a little early.Sad we've had no summer to speak of and the cost of my recharging wintertime escape is going to cost more and be longer.(how confusing huh)
Still I think the worst thing I've seen in the past few years is the fact Fairbanks summers have gone to he**.I've lived up there and you could always survive the winters with thoughts of the wonderful summers.

Termination Dust used to throw my late mother into the darkest of depressions. She would mutter about the last rose of summer.

I realize now that she was sad, lonely and also worried how to survive another long winter. Those were the days before cell phones and making a long distance call was a huge ordeal due to cost and lack of reliability of telephone connections.

The docs in those days were very free with giving sleeping pills to complaining women. Need I say more?

Christmas was less than a highlight of the year than a milestone on the way to another spring.

I can still feel her sadness, but as I child I could not have cared less as I was about as happy as I could get.

That's Alaska!

Termination dust after a cr@p summer is depressing. Termination dust after a great summer is bracing. It's all in the context.

You all are spot on...

It was supposedly over 70 today and partly clear. I wouldn't know, though--I woke up for work at 3:20pm...even more depressing...

When I booked the trip to Maui for next month, I was wondering if it'd be a waste--going to HI is supposed to be an escape from the cold and dark winters, not a time to leave the glorious Alaskan summer behind. I'm starting to be glad I booked it, though--I'm about ready to see some sun and warmth!

I've been wanting to go out for some hiking, but hiking in the rain isn't nearly as spectacular as hiking in the sun, and so I haven't been motivated to try to get out and do stuff. Hope we start to have at least a little bit of clearer weather so I can not be so sedentary and lazy...

The only way it was 70 is if you turned up the thermostat in your office. In 46 years living here, I don't recall a summer like this. It's been cloudy with very little rain until recently. This afternoon wasn't bad, but that was for just a few hours.

I went somewhere warm & sunny for ten days (SEA & DEN) so I'm considering that my summer, at least until my two weeks in EZE for CowDo:cool::D:p

I was in Nome June 8-11. On the 10th, we had about 1/2 hour of wet snow during the late afternoon, then on the morning of the 11th, about one inch of snow! If I understand it correctly, that was apparently the first accumulating snow for Nome in June in decades. People there were not pleased.

Interestingly enough, we flew to Fairbanks later on the 11th, then had a nice thunderstorm with pea size hail on the 12th!

riftime

Not terribly uncommon in Fairbanks in summer, though I only recall it happening once every couple years. I was up there in mid-June (admittedly the best possible time to go) and we had beautiful weather for a solid 5 days (though it rained before and after I was there, I gather). Hey, at least no forest fire smoke...

and "termination dust", ha! I lived in AK for 18 years and never once heard that term. Is it an Anchorage thing? The more I think about it we don't really have that phenomenon in Fairbanks, so perhaps it's regional.

I've only heard Termination Dust in areas of Alaska where there are mountains. The snow starts showing at the top of the mountains and gradually descends to the lower elevations....sometimes not so gradually.



'

It's been getting a bit moderate in Fairbanks, but no sign of the alleged "Termination Dust" or anything resembling it - just a couple summer thundershowers. :)

I'd imagine it could only be used in places not only where there are mountains but also where there are mountains that are snow-free in the summer. Most of Alaska's mountains maintain some sort of year-round snow cap. The Chugach Mountains (and others--the Kenai Mountains down south and the Talkeetna Mountains up north, but all in Southcentral) are [usually] snow-free by June or so. So when the T-dust hits in September or August, it's a big event. For it to hit in July means the world is ending.

Fairbanks doesn't have any local "mountains" on which to see T-dust. The Tanana hills and various domes surrounding Fairbanks aren't real mountains and aren't high enough to get hit with separate termination dust. And in large other parts of Alaska, there are either no mountains (the flat delta/slope lands of pretty much the entire western half and northern quarter of the state) or mountains that are high enough to stay covered in snow year-round (the Alaska Range, Brooks Range, Wrangell Mountains, etc.). Not sure about Southeast--their mountains are obviously not snow-covered in the summer, but I don't know if they use the term "termination dust."

jackal, I am melting in Texas. 106 today! I think I'll go buy a big old car with a huge a/c attached.

Right now I can only dream of what you can see in Alaska.

Or can't see--I haven't seen the Chugach for several days (though I did see Sleeping Lady last week sometime for the first time in memory).

It was a bit sunny out today, but I've spent the better part of the day either knocked out in the oral surgeon's chair or knocked out at home on pain meds (got all four wisdom teeth removed), so I haven't really paid much attention to the views. Speaking of which...gums are starting to hurt, so I think some more pills are in order... (I promise not to get addicted!)

Jeesh, jackal, with all those pain meds, are you starting to "feel the air?" :D

Hmm...I have been humming something to myself lately, but I can't quite remember all the words:

I love, er, something in the spring time
I love, er, that same thing in the fall
I love, umm, something in the summer when it sizzles
I love, uhh, it's on the tip of my tongue in the winter when it drizzles...

I love this something every moment
Every moment of the year
I love, er, it, why oh why do I love, uhh, it
Because my love is here

:)

Good luck jackal! Don't drink any milk as that slows down the healing process!

Still melting in Texas!

I used to be able to see Sleeping Lady from where I lived.

I can't find a source to back this up, but the lore surrounding "termination dust" during my road-system childhood was that it signaled not just the end of summer & tourism, but the coming of termination notices to all the summer hires.

Also, the sun appears to be gracing us, however briefly, in midtown Anchorage today. Finally.

that certainly does make sense.
 

That termination dust signaled the end of the construction season in Alaska. I can't remember the first time I heard the expression. Long time ago. Can't remember who used the expression first either.

I was in Alaska from June 20-29. It only really rained 1 day and was mostly cloudly on another day. The other 7 days or so it was relatively bright and sunny. I found the weather perfect, although my wife who's from TX didnt think so! I guess, for once, the weather gods were smiling at me... :)
For others contemplating a trip to Alaska, I highly recommend going around mid-June, as I repeatedly read on these boards..

and here's what's happening in the interior ...

http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jul/2...chardson-high/

If you define "summer" as over 70 and anything more than an hour of sun, then I did not experience any summer during our last 10 days in Alaska. On the evening of the 21st, we saw little snow in the mountains around Healy and we woke up and saw that the snow line had dropped considerably overnight. We had rain every single day, but this was more understandable on the cruise portion of the visit to the southeast.

Still the rain beats the heat and hurricane that we missed in South Texas. Alaska is unique and even whitewater rafting on the Nenana River a rainy 48 degree day was a great experience. I just decided that it was pointless to obscess about the cool, wet weather and get out there and have fun. We had plenty of it. I give the Alaskans in the hospitality business quite a bit of credit. They made sure we could still have fun outdoors notwithstanding the rain. Wet outdoor fun beats dry aboard a tourist bus.

Alrighty then. You are now an honorary Alaskan!!! :D Still a Cheechako, though. ;) That's the only attitude you can have I live here on a full time basis.

And I offer my thanks on behalf of family members who work in the tourist industry in Alaska. When the weather is bad they hear mostly complaints and their tips are substantially reduced.

This seems as good a thread as ask to ask following question:

I may be able to take a week's vacation around Labor Day.

I was considering going to Nome, and seeing it and nearby locations, Kotzebue, maybe an island or two.
(By way of context, I have previously been to ANC, FAI, BRW, DUT, JNU, SIT, KTN, ADQ).

Would you all suggest that:
- I still go, as it will be warm enough to see things and not too rainy/snowy, etc.
- I go someplace else in Alaska (e.g. Wrangell, Peterburg, Glacier Bay, etc.)
- I wait until next year.

Thanks

I have been in ANC 27+ years and this is the worst summer (and I use the term loosely) I recall. Even worse than the one summer I spent in Ketchikan!

It's okay, though, I guess, being more a night person by nature than anything else, I look forward to termination dust and impending darkness.

When I first moved here I was told termination dust was the signal to look for an Alaskan's favorite site - a Texan heading south with an Okie tucked under each arm (because the seasonal work was over).

Kudos to the "get outside even if it's raining" post - I rousted the kids and took them for an hour hike up the Eagle River Nature Center trails Sunday and man, did they grumble about the rain.

Having been born and raised in the south and having an appreciation for such things that they lack, I told them it is good for their complexions.

We just noticed that regardless of the weather, some people are just cheap, like no tips at all. On several excursions we saw signs to the effect that tips were not required, but were appreciated.

My informal survey is that guides get between 11 and 14 dollars an hour, which is not much for the skill levels they must have to keep guests safe and the costs they must bear to live in Alaska. At least one guide told us that tour excursion companies backload a "bonus" that is payable only if the guide finishes the season into September. We tipped excursion guides about $20 for two of us, more if 4 of us were on the excursion, these were two to four hour excursions. Maybe we were fortunate, but our guides did their best to show us a good time even when the weather was really crummy, like ziplining during rain with slick ziplines making breaking yourself an adventure. We learned a lesson which will increase our tips for future guides on cruises we take. The commissions that the cruise lines take exceed 20%, and about half our excursions were through the line. Next time, we will book all of our excursions directly and plow part of the difference into the tips.

Bottom line, cool rainy weather is a risk of any Alaska visit, just like hot, humid weather is part of a summer visit to Texas or Florida. People who stick the guides with responsibility for the weather are people who just may not be willing to accept responsibility for their own choices. We saw a few of them the past 10 days as well.

What things exactly are you looking to see in Nome?

MIA-SAT, you are a very wise person. One of our family members was tipped $1, yes $1 on a rainy day and most of the people didn't tip at all.

Sadly the tax people assume that the workers get a lot more tips than they've gotten this summer.

Termination Dust sounds like a snowstorm here in Houston, :D and it would close all of the schools, stop the mail, and cause 100 auto accidents due to the strange white stuff! :cool:

It's so hot that my cell phone partially melted in my car this afternoon. 98 and 90% humidity...... :(