Freezing Sleep

Wow the weather up here can really change fast.

For the past week, I have been leaving my window cracked open. The temperature has ranged from 20 to 35 degrees above zero. Yes there was even a day or so when we had some snow melt (albeit not a lot). The wind was not blowing either, at least not much. When the wind did blow it was a gentle breeze off the south shore. Since my apartment is on the north side of the complex I never even felt the wind. It was really nice winter weather in Point Hope. So I had taken to leaving my window cracked.

Of course I woke up this morning about 4:30 AM and was absolutely freezing. The wind was blowing about 35 mph and out of the North, straight off the arctic ocean. The wind was pushing right through my cracked window. And of course the temperature had dropped. Instead of the 20 degrees above zero, which had been the temperature for the past week, it was suddenly -1 degrees below zero (a 21 degree temperature drop in only a few hours). The strong and powerful north wind was driving that sub zero temperature right into my apartment and filling it up with freezing air.

I had to jump out of bed, lose the little bit of warmth I had built up around my body, slam the window shut, and make a grab for some extra blankets. It was an unpleasant morning to say the least.

Of course my mom called at 7 AM this morning...... I won't even get started on that one.