Dear Tom,
Having just returned from a vacation trip to Anchorage, Alaska, we were amazed at how lush the vegetation was. Chicago’s forest preserves have nothing on the forests around Anchorage. How can that be, considering the short growing season there?
Elizabeth Bevans
Dear Elizabeth,
You have discovered one of Alaska’s many secrets. Because of the Earth’s axial inclination, the hours of summer daylight in the high latitudes are much greater than in Chicago or in equatorial latitudes.
In the 1955 Yearbook of Agriculture published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it is noted that the longer northern summer days allow plant transpiration and growth to continue for a longer period each day, thereby producing an effect similar to that of lengthening the growing season.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
