Alaska Adventure: The First Frost: Monday Sept. 26

Today dawned clear and bright. The thermometer read 36 degrees outside. When I left for work the steps outside the house were slippery and I didn't have to walk to get down the ramp. The gravel in the playground was frosted with white ice crystals and the water under the tire-swing had a thin layer of ice on the surface. The ground that has been slightly muddy the last few weeks was hard and frozen. The first frost has reached St. Michael.

If you look back to my August posting "Sights Around Unalakleet", you will find a picture of fireweed. Fireweed is used to predict when the frost will arrive. When the flower blooms there will be six weeks before the first frost. I estimated that the frost would arrive around September 20. Well it is September 26 and the frost has arrived.

Temperatures in St. Michael have fallen notably in the last few days. Yesterday evening, Nathan and I walked to church and the temperature was 46 degrees, but the sun was shining that we carried our jackets instead of putting them on over our short-sleeved shirts. However, by the time we left church we gave up the idea of walking around town and went back to the warmth of our house. Today the temperatures ranged from 36 this morning to 44 this afternoon. The temperatures are reaching the low 30s to upper 20s at night and the forecast for this week shows the high temperature will be falling to 40 tomorrow. We are in the short season of Fall.

When I first interviewed for this position, I was told that I would need to have friends and family send things from home for individual units. The unit that most stood out to me was "Fall into Fall". This unit focused on the changing seasons and how the leaves on the trees change color and fall. It was suggested that I have people collect leaves and send them to me in preparation for this unit because there are no trees here and the children have no idea what trees look like in the fall. This year, to align this unit with the actual season change here, my supervisor moved Unit 7, Fall into Fall, to week 4 of school (this week). When planning for this lesson I realized that fall hasn't arrived in Oregon yet. That is why I didn't request any leaves. By the time week 7 comes around we will have snow.

The forecast says we will begin seeing snow next week. The high temperature is forecasted to fall to 35 degrees on October 5 and we should expect to see snow mixed in the rain. We have also officially crossed from more daylight to more darkness. Today we only had 11.9 hours of daylight. The sun rose at 8:41am and set at 8:37 pm. Comparing the sunrise/sunset times with my last post show the dramatic change that occurs this far north. Winter is coming.