A look at our 10 days of deep cold (-40s)
After 10 days of deep cold, warm(er) air has returned. As I start writing this at 02:30 on January 19th, the temperature has risen 11 degrees in the past 6 hours. Although life has some extra challenges when the thermometer starts reading temperatures in the minus-40s (where Celsius and Fahrenheit meet), many Yukoners find it exhilarating, and surely everyone agrees that it produces some spectacular scenes. The photos that follow journal that cold snap.
I began my series of cold-weather photo outings on Thursday, January 9th. I posted on Facebook at 10:30 that it was now -34°C, “too chilly to even go to the hot tub”, but the view out my window was spectacular so I needed to get out. The first photo shows the spectacular beauty of the Alaska Highway just east of Whitehorse, at -29°C that afternoon (that’s -20°F). That’s the Yukon River bridge ahead. What a place.
I do quite a bit of shooting at the Lewes River Dam (a.k.a. the Marsh Lake control structure) just downriver from the Yukon River bridge, in all seasons. The open water at -29 creates some great fog.
The Yukon River just downstream from the dam.
I really like this angle on the dam from the slope high above.
That little outing wore me out and I had to go home for a nap, but that afternoon I went into town to do some more shooting. The temperature had only warmed up one degree by the time I shot the next photo a couple of minutes before 3:00 pm.
APTN was shooting a segment at my favourite location on Long Lake Road. They offered to move to let me shoot down the river from that exact location, but I was okay with what I had.
For me, the deep cold adds a new dimension to photographing a town I can’t imagine ever leaving. It was -36° when I shot the next photo a few minutes before sunrise on Saturday the 11th.
Back up to my Long Lake Road spot for the broader views. The next photo was shot at 10:02.
Looking downriver from the same location a minute later. That’s Shipyards Park in the foreground – once the home of our large fleet of steamboats.
At 10:16 the sun was lighting up the world in a wonderful way, though adding no warmth to it. This was shot from the same spot as above, but at 235mm. It shows the Marwell industrial area (home to an oil refinery during WWII), Mountainview Drive, and on top of the hill, Yukon College and the Yukon Arts Centre.
Turning the other way again at 10:17, the downtown area was still in shadow.
I stayed there for a while longer to watch the sun light up more of my world – this was shot at 10:28.
And at 10:32 the moon was in a good position for a few shots.
The next photo was my final one from the spot on Long Lake Road, at 10:36.
Driving along the Yukon River – Rotary Park is on the opposite side here.
On my way home, I got distracted by the fog along the Yukon River by the restored sternwheeler SS Klondike.
While I was shooting there, a friend came along and got a photo of me.
It was the SS Klondike I was getting some photos of when the photo above was shot.
It seems that most new homes in Whitehorse in recent years have electric heat (because it’s cheap to install), but Yukon Energy had every piece of generating equipment they own or have leased going full-tilt when I shot the next photo on January 11th. That afternoon there was an LNG tanker and a diesel tanker loading up the respective tanks. The forecast for that night was for -44°C with a -56° wind chill (that’s -47 and -69F), and it was forecast to remain similar all week. I’d have no problem staying warm if the electrical system crashes – most people in Whitehorse would be in serious trouble. The next photo shows the leased Cat diesel generators.
It was the LNG generators pumping out this impressive vapour.
This was the Yukon River right below the power dam. Pretty quiet…
The first -40°C of the season, at 05:15 on January 12th. It was -37 in town, and the forecast was for 6 degrees colder that night. The all-time record for this day is -44.5, set in 2005, when the record was set for the 12th, 13th, and 14th. Tucker tried really hard this morning to convince me that going outside to poop is just stupid 🙂
I spent a few minutes on the wood pile when it warmed up to -36°C 🙂
The weather forecast as it was at 4:00 pm on Sunday, January 12th.
If not for this, I may not have even bothered to go out at these temperatures. The garage isn’t heated, but never drops below about -8°C.
I went out to do another few minutes work on the woodpile on the 13th, but my wood splitter said it was too damn cold to work. Sissy. An hour warm-up changed his attitude, though, and we made a good addition to the wood room in the basement.
On January 14th, the Calgary Zoo tweeted that their Penguin Walk was cancelled “due to extreme cold weather conditions.” Calgary Mayor Nenshi retweeted that with the comment “Nothing to see here, folks. Just a city where it’s too cold to let the penguins outside.” It was 6 degrees colder in Whitehorse 🙂
Just before noon on the 14th, I headed into town to take a friend out for lunch. I thought that with the temperature still at -40°C it would be a safe bet that reservations wouldn’t be needed – I was right 🙂
The sign on the Millennium Trail in Whitehorse amused me. It was -41C and there could be “Icy Patches”, the sign says. I’ll try to avoid them 🙂
The ice fog was so thick on the 14th there wasn’t much to see – the next 2 photos were shot at 11:37.
It’s now 09:20 on January 20th. Cathy arrived home last night from 10 days with her family in Ontario, and it’s -22°C so that excitement is over. I’ll be back at the Yukon Transportation Museum to work on my boat for a bit this afternoon.
On the health front, I’m getting worse by the week. These photo and other outings, however, are required for my mental health regardless of how tough they are. Ten days ago, I went to see my doctor (my GP), and she now has a referral to the GF Strong spinal injury rehab centre in Vancouver in process. Fingers crossed, though it could take many weeks to get into one of their propgrams…
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