The weird weather of 2008 — chilly holiday, sure, but spring was no picnic | Seattle Times Newspaper

The images of snow-packed streets and buses mired in slush may be too fresh, but can you remember spring?

It was lousy, too.

According to the "barbecue index" developed by University of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass, the spring of 2008 may have been the second-coldest on record in Western Washington, after that of 1917.

Anchorage: Cold weather could hinder Nordic racers

In hopes that the temperature will warm to an allowable minus 4 degrees, organizers tentatively pushed back the beginning of the classic sprint 90 minutes to 11:30 a.m. That’s the temperature threshold imposed by international rules under which this week’s races will be governed.

Today’s weather forecast is not promising, with highs of 5 below to 15 below anticipated.

newsminer.com • No end in sight to Interior Alaska cold spell

FAIRBANKS — Friday marked day six of the worst cold snap to hit Fairbanks in several years and there is no relief in sight for residents who live in Alaska’s second-largest city — or the business owners they call to bail them out when their cars, pipes and septic tanks freeze.

“Aarrgh,” is how Dee Born, owner of Homestead Pumping and Thawing in North Pole, put it on Thursday afternoon while dealing with a waiting list that was about three days long. “As soon as it touched 50 below, the phones were ringing.”

The temperature in North Pole dipped to 55 degrees below zero on Wednesday night, the lowest temperature recorded in the greater Fairbanks area during what has been six days of severe cold.
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By Friday, it had reached the point where Locke was no longer responding to requests to jump-start dead cars or change flat tires.

“It’s just too cold to be changing tires,” Locke said.

As far as jump-starting dead cars that haven’t been plugged in, “it’s just a waste of time,” he said.