"When It's Springtime in Alaska (It's Forty Below)" is a 1959 single by Johnny Horton, written by

Tillman Franks Tillman Ben Franks, Sr. (September 29, 1920 – October 26, 2006), was an American bassist and songwriter and the manager for a number of country music artists including Johnny Horton, David Houston, Webb Pierce, Claude King, and the Carli ...

and released through

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. The single was Johnny Horton's sixth release on the

country chart Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sal ...

and the first of three number ones on the country chart. The single spent twenty-three weeks on the chart. The song was a marginally successful crossover, reaching #85 on the Music Vendor Pop Top 100. The song takes place in

Fairbanks, Alaska Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the p ...

in the springtime. The narrator/singer is a prospector making a trip to Fairbanks after two years in the wilderness; he decides to visit a saloon and hears "redheaded Lil" singing the title words. He and Lil spend the evening dancing, but the singer is unaware that Lil is "Big Ed's wife-to-be." Big Ed discovers the two dancing and throws his knife at the singer, who predicts that he will not survive his wound: "When it's springtime in Alaska, I'll be six feet below." The lyrics say the temperature outside is . While it is very rare for the temperature to actually be that low in the springtime in Fairbanks, it has happened. A low temperature of was recorded at the

Fairbanks International Airport Fairbanks International Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located three miles (5 km) southwest of the central business district of Fairbanks, a city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough of the United States state of Alaska. Fairban ...

on March 30, 1970. The coldest time of the year in Fairbanks is around January 13 of each year, with night-time low temperatures at this time averaging around and daytime high temperatures averaging around . The coldest-ever low temperature recorded there was , on December 28 and 29, 1961. A temperature of was recorded in Fairbanks on January 14, 1934.http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/plans/chena/chena_ch5.pdf Alaska Department of Natural Resources - Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation Chapter 5: The Natural Environment

References

{{Johnny Horton 1959 singles Johnny Horton songs Columbia Records singles 1959 songs Murder ballads Songs about Alaska Song articles with missing songwriters