Category: Skywatch Almanac Weather | Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium's Blog

April Weather

Posted: March 30, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

No other month has contributed so richly to New England’s reputation for changeable weather as has April. With the strength of the sunshine now equaling that of August, and the lingering cold refrigerated by the ice and snow near Hudson Bay, just about anything is possible. This balancing act almost… Read More

March Weather

Posted: March 4, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

Winter’s reign is at an end, but most years will not see it go quietly. The sun is as strong as that of September, while the remnants of arctic cold linger across Canada. Should they collide in just the right fashion with mild spring rains heading north, winter recaptures its… Read More

February Weather

Posted: February 3, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

February, you might say, is a case of the sun being willing, but the body of the winter just isn’t ready. Each day brings the sun a little higher, and lasting a little longer in the sky. The same snow that fell in December, leaving the road covered for a… Read More

January Weather

Posted: January 7, 2020| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

With December’s experimentation in winter now over, there can be little doubt that this is winter’s stronghold. The time-worn adage “as the days lengthen, the cold strengthens” gets its inspiration from this month, for daylight increases nearly 50 minutes, but average temperatures drop to their lowest levels of the winter. Read More

December Astronomy

Posted: December 2, 2019| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Mark Breen, Planetarium News, Skywatch Almanac Astronomy, Skywatch Almanac Weather, What's Happening

The longest nights of the year welcome the return of Orion, rising earlier each evening, and dominating the eastern sky, often identified by his line of three “belt” stars. Extending this line to the upper right leads to the red star Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus, the Bull, while looking… Read More

December Weather

Posted: December 2, 2019| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

In winter’s deepest dark, we carry on the traditions of our ancient ancestors, kindling the hopes of longer days with the festive lights of the season. Their belief that the sun needed some help seems fitting in December, on average the cloudiest month of the year. The re-establishment of a… Read More

November Weather

Posted: November 5, 2019| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather, Weather

November seems awkward in some ways. Any spell of Indian Summer is cut short, no longer at home among the barren trees, the dying grass, and the increasingly frosty mornings. And yet the first attempts at winter are frequently messy, the marks of inexperience. Even the sky seems restless, its… Read More

October Weather

Posted: September 30, 2019| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather

Every cliché ever penned about autumn can be found in October, from foliage to frost, from Indian Summer to winter, all against the backdrop of harvesting and settling in for the longer, colder nights. Perhaps most noticeable is the change in light. Granted, the days get shorter, but the increase… Read More

September Weather

Posted: September 3, 2019| Categories: Fairbanks Museum, Skywatch Almanac Weather

September is a classic transition month, not just for weather, but the shift from summer to fall schedules, the darker mornings and evenings, the foliage, the garden harvest, all play roles in signaling us of the changes than turn most everyone’s world around the other way. Longer night and less… Read More

August Weather

Posted: August 5, 2019| Category: Skywatch Almanac Weather

Although the days are now noticeably shorter, it is encouraging that August is warmer than July, 4 out of 10 years. The combination of accumulating heat in the ground and the ocean forces the storm track to its most northerly point of the year, permitting lazy weather patterns to dominate… Read More