Williwaw Publishing FAQs (Frequently
Asked Questions)
Are Williwaw's Publications sold in
retail
stores?
Yes. Most bookstores in Alaska plus many other stores sell the current version of the Alaska Weather Calendar starting in the spring (tourist oriented stores) and continuing through December or early January. The Alaska Cloud and Weather Field Guide is also available in many retail stores throughout Alaska. Our other products are available in some stores. You may request a current list via 
or give us a call at 800-490-4950. Tell us where you live and we will let you know what stores carry our products in your area.
Do you offer discounts to teachers?
No and Yes. No in that we do not have an across-the-board teacher discount.
Yes in that we have a very generous discount schedule that is easy for
teachers to take advantage of. With just four items you get 20% off the
entire order. With 10 or more items you get 40% off. Commonly teachers
can make use of four or more of our products. See our quantity
discount page for details. Now, how about free items? From time
to time we have items we cannot sell which We're glad to give to teachers.
Currently we have too many Alaska History
Calendars from 1998-2000 sitting around. These would be good for
teaching about the Klondike and Alaska gold rushes, since they are full
of wonderful photos with very informative captions. Please let us know
of you want some of these. Teachers at any level, public, private or home
school are welcomed to them.
Does the Alaska Weather Calendar make weather
predictions for the whole year?
No, its hard enough three days out! The calendar does
contain climatological averages and extremes for each month plus selected
historical events on various days, in addition to the in-depth captions
and feature information. The only forecast information is the well rounded
listings of astronomical events for the year, including extreme tide events.
Does the Alaska Weather Calendar give sunrise
and sunset or high and low tides for
my city?
No, unfortunately it is impossible to cover Alaska with this
information, and to include specifics for some cities would be to leave
it out for others. Instead of sunrise and sunset times the calendar does
give length of daylight based on latitude and month for the whole state.
Instead of high and low tides it does list days with extra large or extra
small tidal range, which are valid for the whole state to a close degree.
For more on sunrise and sunset, please see our Global
SunFinder chart. For specific tides, our weather
links has a section just for that.
Can you customize the Alaska Weather Calendar with
my company logo and information so I can use
it as a promotional piece?
Yes we can! For details, please drop us an email or
call us at 800-490-4950.
What ages is the Educational
Cloud Mobile Kit designed for?
It is designed for about 3rd through 6th graders, but
we think it can be useful for a wider age range. It makes a good special
project with close parent or teacher help in the younger years and an independent
learning adventure for middle schoolers or even beyond. (Because of a few
small parts in the kit, it may not be appropriate for those 3 years or younger.
Once the kit is assembled, it is unlikely a 3-year-old could get these
parts off. Even then, the parts are not any sort of serious hazard)
Couldn't I make my own cloud mobile?
You certainly could, and I would not want to discourage that.
The main benefits of our kit are the booklet and the high quality, ready-to-go
materials. The booklet provides not only step-by-step instructions for
making one of two styles of mobile, but a thorough treatment of the clouds
used in the mobile, including diagrams and photos. Having the materials
ready saves you both time and money and makes the mobile easy to construct.
It would be difficult, with scissors or razor knife, to cut realistic cloud
shapes out of paper anywhere near the weight of what we provide, die cut
and ready to color.
How does the Global SunFinder
Work?
The Global SunFinder is basically
a detailed graph showing sunrise and sunset as a function of latitude and
the day of the year. This graph will give you the local time of
sunrise and sunset which then can be converted to your standard
time using a fairly simple formula based on your longitude and particular
time zone. It almost goes without saying that I do not recommend this product
for those who get knock kneed around graphs or formulas.
This chart also can show you the length of twilight on
either end of the day, the true bering of sunrise and sunset, the elevation
angle of the noon sun and the standard time of local noon (which can be
quite different from the 12:00 on you watch). On the flip side of the chart
and basic instructions are some additional information and usage tips,
including a world time zone map.
What about the tide clocks I've seen for sale? Will they work in Alaska?
In a word, no. The tides are too irregular. If fact, according to one seller, they only work on the east coast of the US.
