Climate of Kodiak and points north

I have to confess that, growing up and living in the lower 48, I was pretty ignorant of Alaska. I thought of it mostly as a big, snowy icebox. Now that I live in Kodiak, I can see that perception was way off base, at least regarding Kodiak but also, to some extent, other areas as well.

Just finished living through my first winter here. My impression is that the temperature stayed in the 20s and 30s almost all winter long. It was milder than many a winter I've spent in PA or CT or OH or IL. Yet more than one person in Kodiak has told me this was the coldest winter in years. The water surrounding the island moderates the temperature and keeps it from dipping very low. Now and then I checked the temperature in interior and more northerly parts of AK (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Bethel, Nome, Barrow, Juneau) via Yahoo weather, and found it was often 20+ degrees colder in those places than here. And in the summer, it is very pleasantly cooler here than in the lower 48. I haven't spent a full summer here, but I know what's it's like to walk through the woods on Spruce Island on gently cool or warm days, or to go picnicking and salmonberry picking in nearby Fort Abercrombie Park.

Then there's the greenness of the place. They speak of Kodiak as "Alaska's emerald isle" and you might think it's boosterism, but I've seen the green hillsides and in summer they do shimmer. Here's this paean from an 1890s visitor: “I feel as if I wanted to go back, to Kodiak. Almost as if I could return there to live. So secluded, so remote, so peaceful; such a mingling of the domestic, the pastoral, the sylvan, with the wild and the rugged; such emerald heights, such flowery vales, such blue arms and recesses of the sea, and such a vast green solitude stretching away to the west, and to the north and to the south. Bewitching Kodiak! The spell of thy summer freshness and placidity is still upon me” (John Burroughs, Alaska: The Harriman Expedition, 1899.)

And I'm told that the largest cabbages anywhere have been grown in AK. How could that be? Ninety degree days with 18+ hours of sunlight. And that there are some fertile areas with many different vegetables farmed, and dairy cattle.

And along with it, the extremely cold and long winter in some areas, to be sure. But not in Kodiak, anyway.

These observations are admittedly from a newbie here. (Alaskan oldtimers who may read this, be patient!)