Summer is fairly easy. Other than the sun never setting, it is pretty similar to other parts of the USA. The big difference is that you are a lot more affected by the wilderness, including large animals like moose, mosquitos, and bears.
Winter really sucks. Everyone has good Arctic gear to keep warm. Cars either need to be plugged in or left running to keep from freezing. Snow keeps piling up and doesn't melt for a while.
There is a strong sense of community and helping out neighbors because it is the only way to survive out there. People leave their doors unlocked, in part because people may need to escape a large animal mentioned earlier.
That said, there are a lot of weird people in Alaska, mainly as it is a good place to find manual labor jobs that don't require a background check. There is also a massive male-female imbalance.
I just mentally imagine everyone carries rifles for bears. Is that a problem.
I prefer it to everywhere else I've been in the lower 48, Korea, and western europe
I'm pretty sure Fargo is actually harsher than Anchorage. It's so coastal that it's not as cold as you might imagine.
If you're talking about eastern Alaska, I can answer from a Canadian perspective, because the same stuff continues across the border (for a much larger area). Most people are native, plumbing has to go over the ground, roads are sometimes limited to the cold season or even non-existant. Lots of poverty, because that shit is all expensive, and traditional hunting plays a big role in livelihoods, just with skidoos/snow machines and rifles now. The biggest communities are still small or even tiny, and if it's above the arctic circle people might not schedule their days the same, so you'll see kids playing soccer in the sun at 2 AM.
When I lived in central Alaska, I saw summertime temps of up to 90F (32C) and wintertime temps down to -55F (-48C).
Summer was amazing; endless sunlight. 23.5 hours during the Summer Solstice. Want to play sports at 2am in broad daylight? Easy.
Winter was also amazing, but with the serious understanding that venturing outside without the proper life safety equipment (proper cold weather gear and communication with someone about your whereabouts and route), you could die in about an hour. But those Auroras… a stunning, and gorgeous midnight sentinel dancing above your head—absolutely worth it.
I miss it.
Been working summers up here last couple years. Highs never quite hit 70. 50s pretty frequent, sudden to 40s or high 30s at night. Though I rarely see that because the sun is still up when I tend to go to sleep. So blackout curtains are a must. Rains a lot. A lot of fishing and hunting, charter boats, cruises, excursions. All expensive if you're not doing it yourself, which without experience your can't or shouldn't. Need to keep a lookout for moose while outside. I'm in a small tourist town, locals range from hippies to chuds, tourists suck but where I make my money. Lots of cars have a plug sticking out the grill to hookup a heater in winter. I can't imagine doing winter here. Incredibly beautiful, huge mountains next to ocean, vast wilderness and wildlife, but I don't much care for the culture here, I don't think I'll be back but to visit in the future. Oh, and mosquitos. I'm lucky where I am but they are a plague elsewhere. I just get hit with dead fish smells all the time. Older buildings (rare to see things more than 50 years old) are charming wood structures. New ones surprisingly boxy and seem like they'd accumulate so much snow. A lot of Trump flags.
