Though "all roads lead to Rome" none lead to Barrow unless you are an ice road trucker. We will be driving to our new home until we reach Anchorage. Once we arrive there we will fly to Barrow.
There are so many interesting facts about Barrow, Alaska. Barrow is the northernmost North American city. It has the largest oil field in the country. It boasts of having one of the largest Eskimo populations in the world and has the coldest climate in Alaska. Barrow is 1300 miles south of the North Pole and approximately 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle. Its land type is tundra which is on permafrost 1300 feet deep. The climate is considered polar: winters can be dangerous with the combination of extreme cold and wind. Our new school district, North Slope Borough School District, sent a wind chill temperature chart to inform us of how quickly flesh may freeze with certain wind speeds and temperatures. Extreme wind chill and white out conditions from blowing snow are common. Approximately 324 days per year there are freezing temperatures with snowfall occurring during any month of the year. The first snow typically falls the first week in October with snow on the ground from then until sometimes late June. The sun sets mid-November for about 65 days creating a polar night and rises again in late January. (Little known is the three hours of twilight during the polar nights.) Ice fog and overcast skies are common during winter months. Bitter cold sets in during January and February with average temperatures of -16 degrees Fahrenheit. By March the sun is up about nine hours. In mid-May the midnight sun appears and remains above the horizon for around 82 days. July's average high temperature is 46 degrees Fahrenheit making it the warmest month of the year. Barrow is surround on three sides by the Arctic Ocean with flat tundra stretching 200 miles to the south. Therefore there are few barriers to reduce wind. Our home in Barrow appears to be within about about a mile of the Chukchi Sea.
A nearby archaeological site suggests that Eskimo culture may have existed there since 500 AD. Barrow has about 4500 residents most of whom work in the Northern Slope Borough School District, with the Northern Slope Borough, in the private sector, or with oil companies. Leisure activities include swimming, playing racquetball and hockey, ice-skating, roller-skating, lifting weights, wall climbing, and participating in school events. Due to high prices, fresh produce is brought in weekly via plane. Many decide to purchase groceries from Southern Alaska or the lower 48 and have them flown to Barrow. Vehicles and other large items are brought up via barge once per year, boarded in April and delivered in August.
Special events include Piuraagiaqta (The Spring Festival) held in mid-April, Nalukataq (The Blanket Toss Celebration)- held on several days beginning the third week of June to celebrate successful spring whale hunts, Independence Day- celebrated like the lower 48 on July 4th with Eskimo games including the two-foot high kick and ear pull, Whaling- held the second week of October, Qitik Eskimo Games known as Christmas games- held December 26th- January 1st, and New Teacher In-Service and Welcome celebrated in August of each year.
Each spring evidence of Barrow's unique wildlife is abundant: bowhead and beluga whales, ringed and bearded seals, walrus, polar bears, caribou, foxes, and hundreds of bird species including the snowy owl. Barrow is known as "Ukpeagvik," which means 'the place of the snowy owl.' We received a checklist from our new school district of 185 species of birds that we will encounter in Barrow including various types of loons, grebes, albatrosses, shearwaters and petrels, cormorants, ducks, geese, swans, osprey, hawks, eagles, kites, falcons, caracaras, grouse, ptarmigan, prairie-chickens, cranes, plovers, lapwings, sandpipers, jaegers, skuas, gulls, terns, auks, murres, puffins, owls, nightjars, tyrant flycatchers, larks, swallows, swallows, wagtails and pipits, kinglets, wrens, mockingbirds and thrashers, accentors, thrushes, old world warblers and flycatchers, chickadees, shrikes, crows and jays, starlings, wood warblers, tanagers and allies, sparrows, towhees, juncos, blackbirds, orioles, grackles, finches, siskins, and crossbills. We hope to locate each species and take photographs to share.
We will share more as we learn and experience! Quyanaqpak or Thank you! Please visit us again!
