Beauty of Snow In Kotzebue

Sunrise this week in Kotzebue.

Outside our living room windows the snow is blowing from the sky and the huge snow drifts. This truly is a beautiful time of year in Kotzebue. Snow piled five feet high by plows make fun play toys for kids. Near the front door to our apartment, loose sheet metal clangs.

There is a feeling of antiquity in the wind, as though this land has endured ferocious gusts for thousands of years. Mountains have been made smooth by these winds, leaving treeless tundra behind. Snow and ice formed lagoons, rivers and lakes on the land.

We are expecting nearly two inches of new snow overnight, according to Accuweather. Over the weekend, temperatures warmed up to an unseasonable high of sometimes 25 degrees Fahrenheit. The existing snow began to slush and large areas of icy water hovered over the Kotzebue Sound. The lagoon and Swan Lake displayed patches of open water.

For the first time since October, I ventured out in an unzipped coat with gloveless hands earlier this week. My body has become accustomed to colder temperatures of the Far North. “It actually feels warm today,” I mentioned to Rick one morning after going outdoors to start the van. I carried a smile around town while rejoicing the warmer temperatures with friends and neighbors.

Today the temperatures began to fall. While the high was 21 degrees, the low will reach -5 before this night is through. Thursday temperatures will settle back down into the single digits during the day as the sky clears and the cold envelops us once more. A previously forecasted blizzard will pass us by and be replaced by frigid cold for a day or so until it snows again.

Even while the night is dark, I see the runway lights across the lagoon as I sit here writing this post. A streetlamp outside our window casts a beacon of light on our dead end street. The light has intensified the snow’s whiteness.

Each day we gain more light.

Each day we gain more light. A few weeks ago there was only 1.7 hours between sunrise and sunset. Today there were 2.7 hours and more than four hours between the moon’s rise and set. You might ask yourself why these amounts mean anything to me as I stare out at the night sky. As a matter of fact, I praise the gift of light these days. The expansion of daylight fills my heart with happiness for I know that soon the darkness will recede. Soon this light will awaken us from our holding places and wash away our sleepiness. Residents in this Eskimo village will celebrate the light’s return with late night activities such as bonfires on the beach, fishing and hunting.

But for now I will sit and stare out the window at the beauty. Outside, the runway lights have blurred in the blowing snow and the clanging of sheet metal carries out its rhythm. And I sit here writing this post and thinking of family and friends asleep in their beds. These thoughts bring a smile to my lips and a glow of love in my heart.