What to look for in nature in Alaska this January

When does the sun come back to Utqiagvik, and how fast do Alaska’s days grow in January?

Is January the coldest month in Alaska, and how cold has it ever been?

• The nation’s coldest reading: −80 °F at Prospect Creek

  January 23, 1971 · Prospect Creek Camp, near the Jim River, about 160 miles north of Fairbanks

  A weather observer at a camp housing trans-Alaska pipeline workers, just north of the Arctic Circle, recorded −80 °F on January 23, 1971. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute notes that it is still the lowest temperature on record for Alaska and the United States. The high at Prospect Creek that day was −64 °F, and Fairbanks set its own record for the date at −55 °F. The anniversary happens to fall on the same date as Utqiagvik’s first sunrise of 2027.

• Why the coldest air pools in the valleys

  Clear, calm spells · Interior valleys, the Tanana and Yukon flats, Fairbanks

  The Interior’s worst cold comes when the sky clears and the wind dies. The University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute explains the recipe: clear skies let heat escape, the low winter sun barely warms the ground, calm air lets the cold settle, and the hills around the Tanana Valley hold it in. The result is an inversion, with milder air sitting above the cold, so the hillsides above Fairbanks are often noticeably warmer than the valley floor, and a drive up a ridge road can feel like a change of season.

What is in the sky over Alaska this January?

• The Quadrantid meteor shower

  Evening of Sunday, January 3, into Monday, January 4 · Anywhere dark, facing north to northeast

  The Quadrantids have a short, sharp peak, only about six hours wide. The American Meteor Society’s prediction puts it around 6:30 p.m. Alaska time on January 3; EarthSky gives about 8:47 p.m. Either way, the maximum falls after dark in Alaska, and only a slim waning crescent moon comes up, and that not until the small hours. Well away from town lights, a few dozen meteors an hour is a fair hope near the peak. Their radiant starts out near the northern horizon after dusk and climbs as the hours pass; patience pays.

• The Wolf Moon, the closest full moon of 2027

  Full at 3:17 a.m. on Friday, January 22 · Rises in the late afternoon of the 21st

  The moon reaches perigee about 14 hours before it turns full, so this is a true supermoon, the nearest full moon of the year. Watch it on the night of January 21 into the 22nd, or on the evening of the 22nd. The next evening, the 23rd, the moon slides close to the planet Jupiter.

• Earth at perihelion

  5:33 p.m. Saturday, January 2 · Not something you can see

  At perihelion only about 91.4 million miles separate Earth from the sun, the shortest gap all year, while Fairbanks shivers through its coldest weeks. Ask a child to puzzle that out: the answer is the tilt of Earth’s axis, which keeps northern winter sunlight low and brief.

• Planets

  All month · Venus before dawn in the southeast; Jupiter in the evening east; Saturn low in the southwest after dark

  Venus blazes before sunrise and stands farthest from the sun, as seen from Earth, on January 3. Jupiter is up from evening onward and builds toward its February opposition, while Saturn drops a little closer to the southwestern horizon every week.

Is January a good time to see the northern lights in Alaska?

• Moonless windows

  About January 3–12, and again from early February · Away from town lights, with a clear view north

  With new moon on January 7, the evenings stay free of moonlight for roughly a week and a half. Faint, diffuse aurora that would vanish under a bright moon shows up well then. Near the full moon on January 22, only stronger displays stand out.

• When to look

  Roughly 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. · Interior and Arctic most of all; lower in the northern sky from Southcentral and Southeast

  The Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks points aurora watchers to the middle of the night: its forecast page names a window of about 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. for strong Interior displays, peaking near midnight. Its three-day forecast is the more reliable one; the 27-day outlook is a rough guide only. A Kp index above 5 marks a geomagnetic storm, though conditions over Fairbanks can differ from the global number.

• Surviving the wait

  Every aurora night · Wherever you stand

  An aurora night in January means standing still at well below zero. Dress in layers under a parka, keep spare camera batteries warm in an inside pocket, and check the cloud cover forecast before driving out, since cloud ruins more aurora nights than a quiet sun.

What are Alaska’s winter birds doing in January?

• Ravens courting

  From mid-January · Towns, dumps, river corridors and highways statewide

  According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Interior ravens begin courtship displays in mid-January, and by mid-March pairs are settling near their nest sites. Paired birds fly close together, roll and swoop, perch side by side and preen each other. Outside the nesting season ravens gather at night in communal roosts; ADF&G reports up to 800 in a single roost near Fairbanks, and the Denali Education Center notes that birds may commute 30 to 40 miles a day between roost and feeding areas.

• Spruce grouse in the treetops

  All winter · Spruce forest of the Interior and Southcentral

  In winter spruce grouse feed almost entirely on conifer needles and do nearly all their foraging up in the trees, according to the Denali Education Center. On the coldest nights and days they burrow into dry snow and stay there for hours, using it as insulation.

• Great horned owls getting ready to nest

  Hooting all winter; eggs by March · Forest edges and river bottoms

  Few Alaska birds nest as early as the great horned owl. The Denali Education Center says egg laying can be well underway in the Interior by March, and earliest in years when snowshoe hares are abundant. The deep hooting you hear on still January evenings is pairs holding territory before then. Under a favorite roost, look for gray pellets of fur and bone three to four inches long.

• The last days of the Christmas Bird Count

  Through Tuesday, January 5 · Count circles statewide

  Audubon’s count season lasts from December 14 until January 5, so a count circle may still schedule its day after New Year’s. If you live inside one, feeder watchers are welcome too. Contact the compiler through Audubon’s circle map.

What is happening on Alaska’s sea ice in January?

• Polar bear cubs born in snow dens

  Cubs born in December or January · Snow drifts on river banks, coastal bluffs and sea ice along the northern coast

  Pregnant polar bears dig dens in drifted snow in October and November. ADF&G says the cubs, usually twins, are typically born in December or January, weighing only 1 to 2 pounds. Mother and young stay sealed in until late March or early April, when the cubs weigh about 20 to 25 pounds. A den works, according to federal polar bear biologists at the Fish and Wildlife Service, only if it stays warm, lasts long enough for the cubs to grow and is left undisturbed, so give any big drift on a bluff or bank that might hide a den a very wide berth.

• Walruses mating in the pack ice

  January into March · Bering Sea pack ice, especially around St. Lawrence Island

  Most Pacific walruses spend the winter in the Bering Sea pack ice, and that is where they breed. ADF&G’s species profile puts mating in January through March. Even the several thousand bulls that summer around Bristol Bay head north in fall to join the herd in the ice near St. Lawrence Island. On the ice, walruses settle disputes by raising their heads to show their tusks, and the bull with smaller tusks usually gives way. Calves born of these winter matings arrive about 15 months later, in late April or May.

• Cook Inlet belugas in the ice

  All winter · Mid and lower Cook Inlet, Chinitna and Tuxedni bays; some in the upper inlet

  Cook Inlet’s small population of white whales, about 331 animals and listed as endangered, does not leave the inlet. NOAA Fisheries says that once the fish runs end and ice forms in the upper inlet, many belugas scatter into smaller groups and move to deeper water farther south. Underwater microphones have also shown the whales using the ice-choked upper inlet more often in winter than scientists once believed.

How do moose, caribou and muskoxen get through January in Alaska?

• Moose on packed trails

  All winter, worst in deep-snow years · Willow flats, river bottoms, roads and rail lines

  Winter browse of willow, birch and aspen twigs gives a moose less energy than summer food, so it has to eat more of it, and the Denali Education Center notes that wading through deep snow burns energy just when it is hardest to replace. In hard winters with deep snow and severe cold, many moose starve. To save effort they walk on packed trails, plowed roads and train tracks, which puts them in the way of cars, skiers and dog teams. ADF&G counts about 185 moose killed by vehicles and 16 by trains each year in the Matanuska Valley.

• Caribou on lichen

  Winter range from fall to spring · Taiga and tundra; the Western Arctic herd in the northwest

  From September on, ADF&G says, caribou switch to lichens, dried sedges and small shrubs such as blueberry. Their large, concave hooves spread wide to carry them over snow and soft tundra, and many herds spend the winter in the boreal forest rather than on open tundra.

• Muskoxen where the wind clears the snow

  All winter · Nunivak and Nelson islands, the Seward Peninsula, Cape Thompson, the North Slope

  Muskoxen are poor diggers, so ADF&G says their winter range is mostly limited to places with shallow snow or ground swept bare by wind. Winter herds can number up to 75 animals. Under the long guard hair lies qiviut, a soft brown underwool that, ADF&G notes, has been called the rarest fiber in the world. The department’s profile counts about 4,000 muskoxen in Alaska.

• Snowshoe hares and their runways

  All winter · Boreal forest and brushy edges

  Hares spend the winter eating spruce twigs and needles, bark, and the buds of aspen and willow. They do not dig burrows. Instead they travel the same runways night after night, and in January those runways become trenches worn deep into the snow; look for them under low spruce boughs and through willow thickets.

• Flying squirrels at the feeder

  After dark · Spruce and birch woodland across the Interior and Southcentral

  The northern flying squirrel is strictly nocturnal and often visits bird feeders on winter nights. It does not hibernate, but in very cold weather several may huddle together in a light torpor. One squirrel can use as many as twenty dens in a year, including old woodpecker holes and witches’ brooms. A soft thud on a cabin roof at night may be a squirrel landing.

How do insects and shrews survive an Alaska January?

• Insects with antifreeze

  All winter · Under bark, in leaf litter, in pond mud, in galls on willow twigs

  Most insects spend the winter dormant as eggs, larvae or pupae tucked into sheltered places. Some overwinter as adults and load their body fluids with sugars, proteins and glycerol that lower the freezing point. Combined with supercooling, the ability of tiny droplets of body water to stay liquid far below 32 °F, this protects some Alaska species down to −76 °F, according to the Denali Education Center. Look for swellings on willow stems: many are insect galls with a dormant occupant inside.

• Shrews that never stop

  Day and night, all winter · Runways under the snow and ground cover statewide

  Alaska has nine kinds of shrews, and the common masked shrew weighs about a fifth of an ounce. A shrew’s heart beats about 700 times a minute, and it eats more than its own weight in food every day; some kinds starve within hours without a meal. They hunt along runways under the snow for insects and other small invertebrates, and will eat mice or meat from a cache. In fresh snow, a shrew’s front feet print five toes, while a mouse or vole’s front feet usually show four.

Is lake and river ice safe in Alaska in January?

• Test as you go

  Every trip · Lakes, ponds and sloughs

  ADF&G recommends thumping the ice with an ice spud, a heavy chisel on a long handle, as you walk, and backing off at once if it punches through. Expect weak spots over moving water and springs and around bridge supports, docks, logs and weeds. Carry spike nails or ice picks on a cord, a compass or GPS, and above all a companion.

• Rivers and overflow

  All winter · Interior and western rivers and trails

  River ice is uneven over currents and springs. Overflow, water forced up over the ice that often hides under the snow, can soak boots and swamp a snowmachine; the Geophysical Institute notes that springs keep pushing it to the surface no matter how cold the air is. Follow trails already in local use, and check the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center’s ice reports for your stretch of river.

What can families do outside in Alaska this January?

Safety notes for January in Alaska