This is not a feeling, but the value recorded at an official weather station, at Prospect Creek in Alaska, 290 kilometers north of Fairbanks. Why did this location, which is not even located in the American Arctic, experience such intense cold?
Prospect Creek has a subarctic climate, and is ideally located for freezing temperatures: 196 meters above sea level, right in the middle of the land, where temperature variations are most pronounced. The cities located further north, in the Arctic, are close to the sea: even if the winters there are very harsh (around -50°C), the maritime influence attenuates the extremes. Alaska’s lowest temperatures are still recorded in the central regions of the state, toward Fairbanks.
The record of January 1971 occurred during the darkest days of the year, when there is almost no daylight: it is the polar night. In January, the durationduration daylight is about 2 to 3 hours at Prospect Creek. In summer, the climate is mild in the city (on average 18°C in the afternoon), sometimes moderately hot.
A city now abandoned
Despite these extreme temperatures, Prospect Creek was long inhabited, but the town is now abandoned. Its only occupants are now black bearsblack bearseagles, as well as many others speciesspecies animals. In the past, the town was known for its mining activity.
To this day, the temperature of -62°C remains the absolute cold record recorded for the United States. Outside of Alaska, Montana experienced the lowest temperature in the country, with -56°C at Rogers Pass on January 20, 1954.
