Live Blogging a Cold Snap in Fairbanks, AK (Cont.)

It's 9:54A and the sun was supposed to 'rise' at 9:46A, but it's stuck somewhere on the horizon. The temp is -37.7. At first light the Chickadees and lone Nuthatch fly to the bird feeders to just sit and fill up. I can see little bursts of ice fog when they tweet. The Nuthatch has made it through another night. Today the sun will set at 3:27P. Fairbanks is breaking record low temps every day.

Live Blogging A Cold Snap in Fairbanks, Alaska

It has 'warmed up' from -34 to -20. A misplaced Nuthatch is nestling in my bird feeder trying to stow calories before nightfall when temps will drop. He is all fluffed up with a veil of frost on his feathers. Chickadees survive our winters but the Nuthatch is supposed to fly south. I do worry.

Sunrise today, 9:40A; sunset, 3:32P - a loss of 6 minutes of daylight from yesterday, so you can see we're on a downhill trend until December 21.

The startling blue sky, orange/golden treetops and crispy, crunchy snow makes it all worthwhile.