It’s February 3rd. As all you weather geeks know, today is the sixty-first anniversary of North America’s all-time low temp of 81 below, recorded in Snag, just over the border in the Yukon.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1630.html

Because it’s the day of the Super Bowl, it also reminds me of the coldest air I’ve felt in Alaska. In 1989, I bundled up and walked over Ken and Patty Kalchert’s house, and we watched Joe Montana pull off some late drama to beat the Bengals, driving his team 92 yards on the final drive. Haven’t seen a big game that good for many moons.

During the famous Cold Snap of ’89, my thermometer read -56 outside my little cabin. My phone stopped working, and Jane’s dog dish froze to the floor.

http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF12/1267.html

But we all survived. Here’s today’s reading, warm by comparison but still chilly:

And one of the amazing creatures thriving in this: a boreal chickadee, the Carrharrts-wearing member of the chickadee family:

And the resilient black-cap, about to hammer a frozen seed. Where will she sleep when the temp drops to -40 tonight?