So if it's sunny all day long in the summer, why doesn't it get very hot? (The summer mean high temperature in Barrow, Alaska is only 45°F!) There are a number of reasons why the Arctic remains cold, even in summer. The primary reason is that the sun is low on the horizon all day.
Barrow is the 1st most connected city in Alaska ahead of North Pole, Fairbanks, Fort Wainwright, Nome, and Kotzebue. Approximately 1,000 people in North Slope don't have access to any wired internet. Approximately 100% of Barrow residents are serviced by multiple wired providers.
The high elevation of the East Antarctic Plateau and its proximity to the South Pole give it the coldest climate of any region on Earth. The lowest air temperature ever measured by a weather station, minus 89 degrees Celsius (minus 128 degrees Fahrenheit), was recorded there at Russia's Vostok Station in July 1983.
Inaccessible by land travel, the only option for getting to Barrow is by plane. Alaska Airlines runs flights to Barrow from Fairbanks and Anchorage; expect to spend upward of $500 per person for round-trip tickets.
The average temperatures are in the 41°F (5°C) to 59°F (15°C) range, with plenty of variation between the north and south regions. Kodiak and Cold Bay in the southcentral region register temperatures between 41°F (5°C) to 55°F (12.8°C), while Fairbanks in the interior has some of the warmest days at 72°F (22.2°C).
Although alcohol sales are banned in Barrow, thousands of pounds of alcohol legally arrive every month at a city distribution center.
The name Barrow was derived from Point Barrow, and was originally a general designation, because non-native Alaskan residents found it easier to pronounce than the Inupiat name. In an October 2016 referendum, city voters narrowly approved to change its name from Barrow to its traditional Iñupiaq name, Utqiaġvik.
Utqiaġvik, known as Barrow until 2016, is a remote town at the tip of Alaska, surrounded by wilderness tundra and not accessible by road. The average high temperature remains below zero from December through March.
In Barrow, almost all fuel used for heating or electrical power generation is obtained from local natural gas fields. The US Navy developed the South Barrow gas field in the 1940s, and began using these reserves for their own heat and power by 1949.
Inupiaq language
| Inupiaq |
|---|
| Language family | Eskimo–Aleut Inuit Inupiaq |
| Writing system | Latin (Iñupiaq alphabet) Iñupiaq Braille |
| Official status |
| Official language in | Alaska, Northwest Territories (as Inuvialuktun, Uummarmiutun dialect) |
7227 Karluk St
| COST OF LIVING | Barrow | Alaska |
|---|
| Median Home Cost | $233,800 | $310,600 |
| Utilities | 93.7 | 169.8 |
| Transportation | 72.5 | 98.2 |
| Miscellaneous | 128.6 | 119.5 |
Barrow has gone dry. Because of an October election in which voters approved prohibition, the town that once barred the sale of alcohol but tolerated its importation and possession now bans booze completely. Possession of alcoholic beverages subjects offenders to fines of up to $1,000.
Top 100 Jobs Relatively More Common in Alaska Than Elsewhere
| Rank | Job | Local Popularity Index |
|---|
| 1 | Zoologists and wildlife biologists | 45.6 |
| 2 | Geological and petroleum technicians | 30.5 |
| 3 | Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers | 29.3 |
| 4 | Material moving workers | 20.2 |
There are rumors you can move to Alaska for free or earn money to move there. Unfortunately, they're not true — but you can get paid to live there. According to the Alaska Department of Revenue, PFD amounts have ranged from $331 to $2,072 per person since 1982.
The easy answer is that Alaska is big and sparsely populated, access to many places is difficult and it's far from places where goods are manufactured. Shipping is, therefore, expensive, and it drives up the costs of everything from gasoline to lumber to finished consumer goods. Hence, everything is more expensive.
Alaska runs a program called the Alaska Permanent Fund, which, per the state website, allots an equal amount of the state's oil royalties to every resident through an annual dividend. In 2018, that dividend came out to $1,600 per person.
Yep. Things are more expensive in Alaska. A fast food meal is going to run $8 to $10. A burger/sandwich at a sit down restaurant will cost you $13 to $17.
Regarding Barrow--if I'm not mistaken, it's not that there are no "official roads" to Barrow, it's that there are no roads AT ALL. Barrow, BTW, is well over 200 miles from Deadhorse and the end of the Dalton Highway.
Barrow is one of Alaska's northernmost cities and gets complete darkness for two months out of the year. During the summer, the sun doesn't completely set in Barrow from early May until the end of July.
As a result, food prices in Alaska are high. In Anchorage, the recommended minimum amount of money spent on food for one person is $451.71, according to Numbeo.com data from April 2019. Compare this to the national average of $323.72, and you can see how food can get pricey in the northernmost state.
The price of 4 rolls of toilet paper in Anchorage, Alaska is $4.14. This average is based on 9 price points.
Restaurant Menu
| Travis Scott Meal | $6.00 |
|---|
| Big Mac | $3.99 |
| Big Mac - Meal | $5.99 |
| 2 Cheeseburgers | $2.00 |
| 2 Cheeseburgers - Meal | $4.89 |
That said, Alaska still gets fairly extreme. For example, Barrow—one of the northernmost towns in Alaska—has about two months of darkness in the winter, from about November 18 to January 22. But in the summer, the sun doesn't completely set for about 82 days, from roughly May 11 until July 31.
Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital is a state-of-the-art medical center located in Utqiaġvik, Alaska.
In Barrow, unleaded gas is $7 a gallon at Eskimos Inc., the lone gas retailer.
In Alaska, the sun travels in a slanting 360 degree circle in the sky, so even if it's below the horizon, it's barely below it for a long period. This means that even though the sun isn't visible, we still receive very bright twilight that can last for hours or until the sun rises again.
Utqiagvik, Alaska, formerly known as Barrow, experienced its last sunrise and sunset on Sunday for about two months. The town of about 4,000 people is now beginning its 65-day period of darkness, known as polar night. "If you live above the Arctic Circle, there will be a day when the sun sets for the rest of winter.
It is the northernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″WCoordinates: 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W, 1,122 nautical miles (1,291 mi; 2,078 km) south of the North Pole.
When you hear folks say that Alaska is all light half the year and all dark the other half of the year, what you're hearing is an exaggeration of a basic astronomical fact: in winter, the sun is in the lower hemisphere and it does not light the north pole.
Residents in the Utqiaġvik town of Alaska will not see the sun rise again until January 23, 2021. Polar night doesn't mean the town will be completely dark. Most daytime hours will go through periods known as civil twilight.
