Back in January, during one of this winter’s two biggest cold snaps, I drove around and took some pictures.

This polar bear ice sculpture is UAF’s greeter:

The extreme cold snaps in Fairbanks cover everything in a really pretty frosty layer. It looks best up on the hill at UAF:

It’s not as photogenic downtown. That’s a lower elevation, and the ice fog is always hanging in the air when it’s more than about 30 below. The ice fog in Fairbanks might better be labeled ice smog. It’s not as bad as being in a real city, but it’s as far from fresh air as you’ll find up here. It just sits and stagnates downtown until the temperature rises and it evaporates away. It makes everything just look really cold.