Earthscapes: The Red River Valley Blowing in the Wind By: Don McCollor Click on highlighted words for images and additional information The wind is an integral part of the Valley. It is more than weather, it is a constant presence on the level, empty prairie. Along with the wind, the ever changing weather is a fertile and perennial topic of conversation. The Valley has a continental climate (i.e. blame hot in summer and darn cold in winter). One of the characteristics of such a climate put modestly as "a wide range of temperatures". Summer temperatures average 68 degrees F and winter temperatures 10 degrees F, with respective excursions to +100 degrees F and -30 degrees F to -40 degrees F not frequent, but not uncommon either. (A college maintains that the temperatures in Grand Forks is a constant 72 degrees F year around--unless one is fool enough to venture outside.) Rainfall (and snowfall) is moderate, with about 20 inches of precipitation yearly. Low humidity tends to make the heat and cold less uncomfortable, and the region enjoys a high proportion of sunshine. Towering thunderstorms and tornadoes in summer and howling blizzards and numbing cold in winter are what make living in the region interesting. The weather seems to produce a resilience and calm stoicism in the people. And perhaps not surprisingly, North Dakota has produced at least two noted arctic explorers. The winter humidity with the temperature well below zero is very low. Under such conditions water can change directly from solid ice to water vapor without becoming a liquid. This process is known as sublimation, and had a very practical application before the days of indoor clothes driers.Wet laundry, such as the classic long woolen underwear were hung on the clothesline outside. In minutes, they were frozen stiff as the proverbial board, and careless handling or strong wind could snap a sleeve or leg right off. In a few hours, the ice sublimed out of the clothes, leaving them pliable and nearly completely dry. Ice crystal forming in the cold atmosphere combined with clear skies and brilliant sunshine on a bitterly cold day produces quite spectacular and beautiful "sundogs". These are caused by refraction from the ice crystals in a similar manner to a rainbow, but rainbows seldom show the variety of available refractions. The most noticeable is a bright halo circling the winter sun subtending 22 degrees of arc. On either side are two brilliant patches of light or "sundogs" (parhelia), often nearly too bright to look at. A second, fainter halo forms at 44 degrees under favorable conditions with a second pair of sundogs. Yet another partial arc may form directly overhead tangential to the 44 degree halo. There are several other halos and arcs more rarely seen, all related to the type and orientation of the hexagonal ice crystals in the atmosphere.   Atmospheric Halos, Lynch, David K,. Scientific American, April, 1978. A Field Guide to the Atmosphere, Schaefer, Vincent J. and Day, John A., Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1981, pp. 158-162. The Voyage of the Vega Round Asia and Europe, Nordenskiold, A. E., Macmillan and Co., New York, 1886. pp. 232-233. A noted blizzard occurred in March 1941 with heavy snow and sudden high winds. When 70 to 85 mile an hour winds reached Kempton (seven miles south of Larimore), an empty boxcar parked on a siding began to move, jumped the switch onto the mainline, and headed for Fargo. Pushed by the wind, it quickly was rolling at 60 miles an hour passing through Northwood, Hatten, Mayville, Blanchart, and Preston before being stopped after 55 miles travel at Hunter.   Looking for Candles in the Window, Ramsey, Douglas, and Skroch, Larry, Published by Skroch and Ramsey, 1992, pp. 129-130. The arctic explorers were Carl Ben Eielson of Hatton, ND.--polar pilot and first transpolar flight from Barrow, Alaska to Spitzbergen, and Vihljalmur Stefansson, explorer and author of " The Friendly Arctic". Stefansson is perhaps the most noted University of North Dakota non-alumnus. He left the University in 1902, now a world-known figure, he returned to the University to have an LL.D. degree conferred on him. Stefansson spent ten years in "the friendly arctic" (and writing a book by that title). Throughout his career, "he maintained that life on the Dakota prairie was, because of similarities in topography and climate, the finest possible preparation for a career in arctic exploration."   Stefansson: Prophet of the North, Hanson, Earl Parker, Harper & Brothers, New York, 1941, p. 16. Discovery: The Autobiography of Wilhjalmur Stefansson, Stefansson, Wilhjalmur, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1964. The WPA Guide to 1930s North Dakota, State Historical Society of North Dakota, Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 155-156, 201-202. Disclaimer and Copyright