Denali Weather : 100 Years

Denali Weather : 100 Years celebrates 100 years of recording weather data at the Denali National Park dog kennels. For the past 100 years rangers have fed and watered the dogs first thing in the morning, and then recorded weather conditions.

As Ree describes this quilt: “Pam Sousanes, National Park Service Physical Scientist for Central Alaska & Arctic Inventory and Monitoring Networks, approached me to do a commemorative piece for the August 23rd celebration. She and I brainstormed how it might be possible to best tell this story. The project appealed to me on a personal level, as well as my interest in depicting the consequences of Alaska’s warming temperatures in the Arctic. My husband Bill Nancarrow was a ranger at DNP in 1948-1952, and he would have been one of the people doing the weather recording at the kennels. He started the dog team demonstration program in 1952. Soldiers brought their families to the DNP Hotel, open in the winter at that time, for rest and relaxation. Bill suggested the program as an activity for them and their families.”

The greens and blues of this piece visually tell the story of that recorded data. The change in temperatures over time, shown from left to right, is not linear but indicates a definite warming trend over time.

Each vertical stripe represents one year. The blues, broken into 5 groups, represent the lowest minimum temperatures ranging from -54 degrees to -25 degree. Darker blues indicate the lowest temperatures.

The green stripes, broken into 11 groups, are the average annual temperature of each year, ranging from 21.5 degrees to 35 degrees. Dark greens are the lower temperatures.

Three of the current sled dogs at Denali National Park are colored to represent average annual temperatures for certain time periods. From left to right:

• Dargo represents 26 degrees, the average temperature from 1950-1975.

• Gus represents 28 degrees, the average temperature from 1976-2012.

• Nepa represents 30 degrees, the average temperature from 2013 to the present time.

This quilt was commissioned by Alaska Geographic, and is owned by Denali National Park. It will hang in the Denali Visitor's Center.