Cold not breaking records

The Valley woke up to below-zero temperatures for mornings on end this month. It's been cold enough to be mindful of exposure and frostbite, and for some parents to stage warm cars at bus stops. But so far no records have been set, according to officials at the national weather service.

"This hasn't been a record cold spell by any means -- it's been cool, but it's probably 15 or 20 degrees warmer than it could get,"said Bob Hopkins, the meteorologist in charge of the Anchorage forecast office. Hopkins said that while temperatures are recorded around the Mat-Su Valley, the nearest place where station official climate record can be set is at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

If it feels extra cold in you're bones this month, it's probably because Old Man Winter has gone easy on Southcentral Alaska the last couple of years.

"To be exact, we went 683 days between below-zero days at the record center here in Anchorage," Hopkins said.

The weather service does have Valley stations reporting forecasts. Volunteers report 24-hour lows and highs as well as precipitation measurements each day, year round.

Dan Kerns, the meteorologist who coordinates the volunteer weather station efforts, said Valley stations are part of a network of about 130 Southcentral stations, and there are 12,000 volunteer reporters nationwide.

"Some are cop shacks and fire departments, and up here we have a lot of fish hatcheries," Kerns said. Many stations are family run.

"It's a tremendous responsibility for someone to take on reporting the weather data every day," he said. "The ones that find someone to report while they are away are the ones that keep the weather record data, but it is a tremendous responsibility for a family to take on."

Kerns referred the Frontiersman to the University of Alaska Fairbanks experimental farm in Palmer, where a station is manned by Farm Superintendent Don Gossett. Gossett records temperatures every morning at 8:15, and resets the thermometer to catch the next day's high and low. Gossett's reporting forms showed last year's December and November were quite a bit warmer than this year's, following a pattern similar to the Anchorage airport station.

In 2000, the experimental farm hit a December low of 2 degrees, and a November low of 9. Gossett said workers at the experimental farm have been recording temperatures since about 1917. Like the volunteers, the farm's staff does this for the weather service meteorologists who use the data.

"There isn't anybody around here that compares much of it, we just report it," Gossett said.

While the cold temperatures this year may not be record-breaking, for youngsters waiting for the bus each morning, it may feel like the coldest winter ever.

First Student Operations Supervisor Dixie Mobley reminded parents that despite the cold, children need to be at their bus stops five minutes early, and to remember that drivers aren't allowed to leave stops early.

"If you get to school early, but with no students that's no good either," she said.

Mobley said she didn't think the cold was so bad. Snow storms or freezing are harder on the bus business.

"Truthfully I'd rather have cold than the ice," she said. "People expect it to be cold in Alaska. I grew up in Seattle and it was wet all the time."

Dispatchers at First Student's bus dispatch said calls don't usually go up simply because it feels cold -- it usually takes a late bus to trigger calls. Mobley said the dispatch center welcomes calls, and that of the 137 bus routes a normal day has one or two late buses. Winter storms, of course, bring that number up.

"Someone mans the radio between 4:30 every morning until after the last bus comes in," Mobley said. "And we've got several different lines that come in, so any of us could answer the phone." The First Student dispatch number is 357-4289. The number will go to voice mail if dispatchers are busy -- Mobley recommends hanging up and trying again if the call is urgent. Mobley said the dispatchers are in constant contact with the drivers, so callers can get information quickly. First Student drivers are also required to report if they are 10 minutes behind, and dispatchers pass that information to radio station KMBQ 99.7 FM.