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Comment by lucaspiller | Hacker News Reader

This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates.

Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a unit for sale for $40k if anyone is interested :D

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The full article (http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie...) has this to say about the weather:

> The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Whittier was the wind—we were barely out of the car when a powerful gust pushed us down the hill. People in Whittier get out of their cars carefully; the wind has been known to shatter windshields and bend car doors backwards. Because the weather can be so extreme, kids often walk to school via an underground tunnel. The town averages around 250 inches of snow annually, but some recent years have seen closer to 400 inches. Two winters ago the snowdrifts near Whittier School were piled so high that the principal let students go outside to take pictures of one another hanging from a street lamp.

Coastal Alaska isn't nearly as cold as everyone thinks. The ocean keeps it mild. It snows a lot, and it's often windy, but the actual temperature is rarely below ~ -20C.

I'm in the Yukon, away from the ocean. I rode my bike to work at -37C this morning :)

My mom grew up in the panhandle (Ketchikan) which rarely even sees snow, I guess (but lots of rain).

That's a LONG way South of me :)

We did the drive from Washington to Anchorage when I was 6 or 7. It was a very beautiful, to say the least, and I have many memories of that part of Canada (BC and Yukon) etched into my head.

I read somewhere that Whitehorse has the highest number of bicycle commuters per capita. I rode my motorcycle through there a few years ago, and it was quite beautiful.. but I don't get why so many bike commuters. I guess compared to a big city it has no transit or less transit? But less spread out than a typical suburban area?

The statistic would have surprised me in an area with mild weather year-round; nothing about the area seemed particularly well- (or ill- , for that matter) suited to bicycle commuting. A fairly compact downtown but plenty of rural housing.

The cold winters just made the bicycle commuting stat mind-blowing.

Any feedback about this statistic? Is it like a "yeah, but.." kind of thing? Or does the area really take pride in bicycling? Some kind of history I'm not aware of?

The vast majority of people that live here do so because of the amazing array of wilderness outdoor activities on offer mere minutes from town. I've lived in a lot of places in Western Canada, and none of them hold a candle to Whitehorse in this regard.

I don't know for sure, but my guess on a bike riding stat is that there are a lot of people living here that are outdoor/fitness freaks. Most of them are super freaks.

Also, anyone that doesn't like the winter leaves. So those of us that stay love it, and we don't care if it's +30C or -30C when it comes to doing awesome outdoor activities :)

That's indeed true. My sister lives in Whitehorse, and she says that pretty much everyone who lives there is an outdoor enthusiast. If you aren't, you just won't fit in.

The coldest city in Europe is Helsinki. According to Wikipedia, the average high is 9 C and the average low is 2.9 C. For Whittier, the average high is 7.3 C and the low is 1.7 C.

Can you give some examples of these many European cities that are colder, on average?

Not sure where you got that Helsinki is the coldest city, I'm not even sure it's the coldest capital. There are plenty of colder cities, take a look at Kiruna as an example (which was also featured here a few weeks ago):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiruna#Climate

Edit: Ah I think I understand, my original comment was referring to being cold in the depths of winter, not the average temperature. Right now I'm in Vilnius the capital of Lithuania, it get's colder than Whittier (and Helsinki) in the winter but a lot hotter in the summer, so the average isn't that bad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius#Climate

Just as a little fun fact Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongola is the coldest capital city in the world. Right now Accuweather says it's -18°F (0°C). It regularly dips below -40°F/C in the winter.

-18°F (0°C)

What?

-18F is -27C

0C is 32F

I think parent swapped F/C. -18°C is 0°F

You probably mean Helsinki is the coldest capital in Europe?

Actually, I just meant "cities of a certain size" more than anything else.

If the comparison is winter temperatures, rather than year-round averages, it would make more sense to compare the coldest month (otherwise you mix together the effect of cold winters and cool summers, which are very different experientially). Helsinki has colder winters than Whittier does, though not by a huge margin. Whittier's coldest month is January, with average high -0.4 C (31 F) and average low -5.1 C (23 F). Helsinki's is February, with average high -1.9 (29 F) and average low -7.4 C (19 F). Whittier has a lower year-round average because it has cooler summers (highs around 60 F / 15 C, versus Helsinki's ~70 F / 20 C).

Helsinki is a pretty temperate city for Finland, though, being on the southeastern coast. Oulu and Tampere are a lot colder!

Some cities in Northern Sweden and their yearly average low/high:

Kiruna: -8.1 to 1.8 Luleå: -1.5 to 5.9 Umeå: -0.8 to 6.7

Luleå and Umeå both have Universities and populations of ~45k and ~80k respectively. Kiruna is a mining town.

I lived in Umeå for a few months, it's actually pretty pleasant.

Vorkuta looks to be on the European side of the Urals - and that's pretty chilly:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorkuta

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