What Comes After Snow

Photo by Brian Wallace | Juneau Empire

And here we see what happens when you get lots of snow and then it gets warm and starts to rain. Deep puddles all over town. See the lovely snow? Color by car exhaust.

Water up to your floor boards and ugly snow. What a lovely city we seem to be today.

When I lived in Fairbanks, teaching Montessori,I wrote a song that I taught to my class. I posted it last March, but here it is again.

Springtime in Alaska
I love filthy, dirty snow.
I love to watch it melt and go.
I love icky, cruddy mud;
It's spring!

Snow melts in gray brown rivulets,
Exposing the butts of cigarettes,
Snow goes, here comes all the crud;
It's spring!

Mittens, hats, and scarves come off,
As our winter clothes we doff.
We've been wearing them a while;
It's spring!

Birds are hanging out in pairs,
It's time to go wake up the bears,
Courtship is suddenly in style;
It's spring!

Men of The Sea

The effects of cold weather are just amazing. Look at the ice on this boat. Can you imagine going out on the sea in conditions that would lead to something like this? No, I can't either. The people who do this impress the hell out of me. Just so we can eat cod! Good stuff, cod.

Erik Auger, a crewman aboard the fishing vessel Carlynn, uses a sledgehammer to break ice off the wheel house Monday at Aurora Basin boat harbor. Ice nearly two feet thick built up on the vessel as it fished for gray cod in Frederick Sound after a cold snap hit Southeast Alaska. Today's weather forecast calls for rain and a high temperature.

By Brian Wallace | Juneau Empire
Click to enlarge

And Again, Weather

Here is Harris Harbor, very well snowed in. This picture was taken from the Juneau side, looks southwest to Douglas Island, with Admiralty Island in the far background.

So far this year the total snow fall is average, however we had less than normal through January and the first ten days of February have brought three more inches than the standard for the full month.

Yahoo sever weather alert says,

RISING TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH RAINFALL ON THE SNOW PACK WILL CAUSE STANDING WATER TO FORM IN LOW LYING AREAS. DRAINAGE IN SOME LOCATIONS WILL BE HAMPERED BY AN ICE LAYER WELL BELOW THE SURFACE. EXPECT SOME LOCAL STREAMS TO BEGIN FLOWING WITH INCREASING WATER LEVELS.

RAINFALL ON SNOW WILL INCREASE THE WEIGHT OF THE SNOW LOAD. PERSONS SHOULD BEGIN TO REMOVE DEEP SNOW LAYERS FROM STRUCTURES WHERE INCREASED LOAD MAY BE A PROBLEM. BOAT OWNERS ARE ADVISED TO CLEAR SNOW FROM DECKS AND ENSURE THAT BILGE PUMPS ARE OPERABLE.
STANDING WATER THAT DEVELOPS ON ROADWAYS MAY ALSO BE A HAZARD. WATER OVER ICE WILL CAUSE SLICK SURFACES. SOME AREAS MAY EXPERIENCE FREEZE-THAW CYCLES WHERE STANDING WATER REFREEZES.

Doesn't that sound exciting? There are plans for my living room roof to be cleared, yet again, tomorrow. That will make three times in two weeks. The rest of my apartment has a pitched roof, but the living room is flat. And we don't really want it to collapse. At least I don't have to have bilge pumps!

By Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire

Fire & Ice

Ice coat: Volunteer Capital City Fire and Rescue firefighter Sam Russell stands covered in ice as he puts out "hot spots" Saturday at Fisherman's Bend.

Test, Alan Suderman, photo Michael Penn / Juneau Empire
Click to enlarge.

I saw this in the paper this morning and it reminded me of my friend Bobby, who retired from the Fairbanks Fire Department as Battalion Chief. When he was with the FFD, they wrote a book called "Fairbanks Through The Smoke." There is one story from the 40s about fighting fires when the temperatures are below zero, and coming home with turnouts so frozen that the firefighters had to chip the ice off themselves and then lay down on the floor and have their wives pull them off of them -- it just wasn't possible to bend enough to do it themselves. It is amazing that people will do something like that. It shows just how incredible human beings can be and elicits my admiration.

Winter Continues

I thought you might like an update on our local weather. So, here is something from the Juneau Empire photo by Brian Wallace.

LOCAL Juneau Empire An avalanche slides down Mount Roberts on Wednesday above Thane Road. The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities fired several avalanche-control shots with a 105-millimeter howitzer at the sites above the road.

And, from Yahoo, a severe weather alert:

POSSIBLE WINTER STORM OVER THE WEEKEND...

A STRONG WINTER STORM IS EXPECTED TO MOVE NORTHEAST INTO THE EASTERN GULF EARLY SATURDAY. THIS STORM WILL LIKELY TO BRING POSSIBLE HEAVY SNOWFALL...ESPECIALLY OVER THE SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PANHANDLE SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT. STRONG NORTH TO NORTHEAST WINDS COMBINED WITH BITTER COLD TEMPERATURES MAY PRODUCE WIND CHILLS OF 30 BELOW OR COLDER OVER THE FAR NORTHERN PANHANDLE. TAKU WINDS WILL ALSO LIKELY TO DEVELOP LATE FRIDAY NIGHT AND CONTINUING INTO SATURDAY IN THE DOWNTOWN JUNEAU AND DOUGLAS AREAS.

Clearing the way

A tug boat breaks up and pushes ice Monday in Gastineau Channel near Channel Drive. The crew of the tug cleared the ice for the Northland Services barge service. More cold weather is on the way, with highs in the teens forecasted for today and Thursday.

The thing about this photo is that the Gastineau Channel is sea water. Do you have any idea how cold it has to be for there to be ice floating on top of salt water? The Channel is entered by various creeks and the creek water is freezing on top of the ocean water as it hits.

Do click and enlarge this photo.

Photo: Brian Wallace. Text: Juneau Empire

Local Weather

I thought you might like to see a couple of pictures from Tuesday's newspaper of the local snowfall.


Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire

Larry Buzzell points out the size of the snow berm Monday in front of his Riverside Drive home. Some Riverside Drive residents say they are tired of the city leaving giant berms of snow in the street blocking their driveways.

Brian Wallace / Juneau Empire

Kevin Nye clears snow Monday under the watchful eye of a bronze brown bear sculpture in front of the Macaulay Salmon Hatchery. Juneau received about 7 inches of snow in 24 hours, and a heavy snow warning was issued for Monday night

Strong Winds

I'm going to give you a couple of pictures and some text from yesterday's newspaper this morning. As you can see, we have been having a little wind up here in the frozen north.

Wind and frigid temperatures wreaked havoc on the Alaska Marine Highway System this weekend and toppled more than two dozen 11,000 pound shipping containers at Alaska Marine Lines near downtown.

An avalanche comes down Mount Roberts toward Thane Road at about 8:20 a.m. Monday. The avalanche, reportedly caused by high winds, did not block the road.

Photos: Early morning avalanche
Courtesy of Annette Smith; Winds knock over 11,000-pound shipping containers By Kim Marquis. Text, Juneau Empire

Clear Skies

The sky has been absolutely clear for the last two days. Not a cloud to be seen. Which means that it is what Yahoo weather describes as "bitterly cold". January and February are not months when you really want to see blue skies in this part of the world.

The temperature has been between +5º and 0º F. But the wind has been blowing, with gusts up to 50 mph. Which gives us a wind chill factor of -20º at times. Indeed, bitterly cold.

And, of course, the price of heating fuel has gone up. Mine is included in my rent. There are four apartments in my building, one of which the landlady lives in. So, three paying rentals. The fuel bill has been running $600 a month more than it was last year. And that was before this cold snap. The landlady has raised our rent, but only $50 a month. That doesn't put a dent in the heating bill. So, we are all trying to conserve. Keep the heat low. Wear layers. Yesterday I was wearing a long tee-shirt nightgown under a long flannel nightgown under a terry cloth robe. Sit under a lap blanket, with a heating pad on behind my back. And slipper socks. If I dress like this when it's +20º outdoors, I can save some money. But at these temperatures, the heater was on all day. When I came upstairs, I turned the thermostat down from 65º to 55º. Perhaps it cycled off during the night, but I doubt it.

And, for those of you who have never lived in the cold, this also means that I have to leave the kitchen and the bathroom faucet dripping so the pipes don't freeze. Frozen pipes mean broken pipes (ice expands) and big messes and plumbing bills. Not good.

Click photo to enlarge.

Weather Update

Well, we are expecting a lot of snow today. Between seven and 13 inches, according to Yahoo. And, continuing snow off and on for the next week. At the moment* it is falling heavily and the plow just went by for the third time this morning. The Hooligans are fascinated. I'm rather enjoying it myself.

* 9:00 A.M. Alaska Standard Time.

Image courtesy wunderground.com. Click to enlarge

Well, It Got Warmer

You would not believe what is falling out of the sky! SNAIN! Huge globs of wet, wet, wet snow falling very fast because it is very heavy. Yahoo weather says it is 37º and light rain. I believe the temperature. According to Everything 2

Snain is partially (though not fully) melted snow that will most frequently fall when the air temperature is between about 0.5 and 3.5 Celsius (33 - 38 degrees Fahrenheit) .

It is an interesting phenomenon to watch, but I can tell you it is no fun to walk in.

P.S. Bitty and Julie have each tagged me for a meme, and I will do them this week.

Photo courtesy Belski's Blog

Warm and Cozy

This photo of Juneau, taken by Elise Tomlinson from Douglas Island, is a good winter view. From the sky, I'm thinking it was taken during the day, with a lot of cloud cover, but from the lights in the city, obviously not at high noon. The mercury has been rising, clouds have come in, and we have snow. The temperature was 28º today and expected to be in the mid-30s tomorrow. Tomorrow we expect rain, and most of the snow at my elevation* will wash away. Meanwhile, it feels really nice to not have to wear as many layers, to go barefoot indoors, and to have my bedroom window open a couple of inches again.

* My apartment is as high as the lights go up the side of Mount Roberts.

Photo courtesy Elise Tomlinson

A Weather Note

I couldn't get the graphic with the weather report to copy, since it isn't the correct format, but I got this map of our current situation. Anyway, the temperature is 3º, with blue sky and wind. Yahoo weather says it is "very cold" -- I agree. When the wind blows and there is a wind chill factor it will feel even colder. It's so cold that I put on slippers when I got up this morning instead of running around bare foot. In 2005, the last time we had one of these severe (for Juneau, not for Alaska) cold snaps, I couldn't sleep for cold feet and Richard gave me a pair of his thick white socks to wear to bed and these slippers. I have an electric blanket now, so I don't need the sleeping socks, but the slippers are wonderful!

Brrrr!!! It's Cold Outside!

So, it is cold outside. We have had three days of sunshine in a row, and the lack of clouds has allowed all of the heat to bleed back out into space and, day by day, the temperature has dropped. It is currently 8º Fahrenheit out there. With winds gusting up to 45 mph, with the occasional 60 mph, the wind chill factor is -35º.

Cold. Darned cold. Here in Juneau winter averages in the low 30s, so this is very cold. And it is very cold early, since we get our coldest in mid to late January. The weather has done this only three years since I've been here. January of 2005. And one year in the mid-90s. None of us really have clothes for it, since this isn't interior Alaska. Nor are our homes really insulated for it. But, we can layer and sit under blankets and be quite cozy.

Sunday I didn't get dressed, but I did put a t-shirt nightgown on under my flannel nightie and terry robe. And sat under a blanket. And drank hot ginger tea instead of ice water.

I love the sound of the wind and the blue, blue sky is a cheerful sight. But even my feet felt cold when I stepped out to get the newspaper. Brrr.

Snow Miser courtesy Rankin Bass Studios.

Click on photo to enlarge.

Autumn has come to Juneau. The trees are turning. This one is in the yard at the place where East doglegs and becomes Basin Road, just two blocks down from my apartment*. I love watching this tree turn every year; it puts on a fine display and gladdens the heart.

I like living in a place with four distinct seasons. Winter we get snow -- not daily, but last winter we got a record breaking 222 inches, so that it seemed like it was always falling down. Spring the leaves bud on the trees, everything turns green, and the flowers bloom. Summer it is warmer, berries are ripening, and the town fills with tourists. And fall -- plants change colors, leaves fall, and there is an invigorating nip in the air. And for three of the seasons and part of the fourth, it rains and then it rains again and then it rains some more, and finally it rains. We're currently having rain. Some downpours, although that isn't the usual thing. Usually, we get a fine misty rain that convinces you that you don't really need to open your umbrella, but manages to soak you by the time you've walked a couple of blocks. This fall we are having California winter style rain -- someone is standing on the clouds and dumping buckets of water on us. We do not, however, get thunder and lightening. About once in 15 years, when the rain comes from Canada instead of from the Pacific, the temperature differential between cold wind and maritime climate gives us thunder and lightening. I have to say, I really miss it. But the Taku winds are dramatic. Having been born on the birthday of Shakespeare and Shirley Temple, I do love drama.

* One morning about seven years ago, I was walking to work and as I turned the curve and started down I saw a large black dog going into this yard. And then I realized that the reason that dog was as big as a bear was because it was a bear. So I turned around and went the other way. My Mama didn't raise any fools, and only a fool argues right-of-way with a bear.

Living in the Rain:With An AsideOn Comfortable Shoes

I posted this picture last July 23, but I thought that those of you who have found me since then might like to know what I look like on rainy days.

This is actually a winter photo, as you can see by the bare branches on the trees, but it is one of my favorites. On a rainy day I believe in dressing in bright colors to cheer myself up. With the weather we have around here, I wear bright colors a lot.

I always feel particularly regional in this hat; it is a fisher hat and commercial fishing is a big part of the local economy.

The other way you can tell it is an old photo is the shoes. In those days I wore white walking shoes; these days I have discovered that men's walking shoes fit my feet better than women's and am wearing some in black leather. Should you be, or know, a woman with wide feet, let me recommend men's shoes. I haven't had such comfortable feet since 1960 when I moved to Berkeley, and had several pair of sandals custom made and discovered that it was not necessary for my feet to hurt all the time. They don't make women's shoes wide enough for my feet, so I have to get them too long, and before they are wide enough, they are so long they slide up and down my heels and cause blisters. Blisters and corns both. What joy. I kept those sandals, wore them all the time except when I couldn't, got them repaired again and again, but eventually they were done for and I had to throw them away.Let me tell you, I hated giving them up.

And After That It Rained

Heavy rain. Rain in the morning, rain in the evening, rain at suppertime. When the rain stops, the fog raises. Everything is growing and growing and growing. And I had planned to get a photo of the front of my place, the vacant lot next door (where the house slid down the hill about 20 years ago), and the retaining wall, because they were sweet rocket and butter cups all over the place, but the rain has knocked a great deal of the sweet rocket flat. And that was a disappointment, because it is the most in bloom that section has ever been, with sweet rocket growing between the cracks of the retaining wall. So, I will just have to hope that it gets that pretty again next year.

Yahoo is predicting rain through the 23rd, which is as far out as they predict. Ugh.

Here is a quote from Terry Pratchett's "The Last Continent" which aptly describes what our weather has been like lately.

It rained. After that, it rained. Then it rained some more. The clouds were stacked like impatient charter flights over the coast, low on fuel, jockeying for position, and raining. Above all, raining.***It went on raining.
And then it rained some more.
After that it rained.

I love the image of the clouds as impatient charter flights. I would love to claim it as my own. And if Pratchett weren't such a very well known author, and if I weren't such a goody-two-shoes, I just might. But he is and I am, so I give credit where credit is due.

Rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've been having nothing but this for the last five or six days.

Not our usual misty rain, but the pour down and soak rain.

Which is ok, except that Yahoo weather says.




It's never gonna stop!!!!

As far out as Yahoo predicts, this is going to be going on.

A good ten more days, at least.

We're just a touch tired of it.

Feeling down about it.

Ready for almost anything else.


And the thought of over sixteen days of rain, even here in this rain forest, is pretty heavy.

Which may be why my neighbor has started building this.

Somebody had better.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

Ah, sunshine. Three days in a row of sunshine! With more to come -- Yahoo Weather keeps moving the prediction for rain four days out! After a winter that gave us 197.8 inches of snow, which you don't get without days and days and days and days and days and days and days of clouds, three days in a row of sunshine! My great-grandmother used to say, "Thank God for small favors, and large ones in proportion." And this, I am here to tell you, is a large one. Were these Old Testament times, I would be burning sacrifices. Botanical, rather than zoological, as I would still be a humane woman, one would hope. Sunshine is a rare event here, any year. This year it is a flipping miracle.

Instead of waiting inside for the Care-A-Van to pick me up, I am going outside and waiting there. At home, there is a small pocket park less than a quarter of a standard block away, that has two benches that were covered in snow from November through the end of March, and wet from rain until Tuesday! When I sit on them, I can see downhill to Admiralty Island. Across the street from work, Rainbow Foods has a bench that has been in the same condition as the ones on 8th Street. Ah, the wonder of it all. Usually my afternoon pick-up I'm hoping the driver doesn't get delayed so I can get home at a decent time, but now I'm perfectly willing for him to be late while I sit and watch the ravens and work on freckle maintenance.

I'm working on building up the strength in my back, lost what with one thing after another over the last few years, and so now that there is no ice on the street, on the way downhill to work, I am getting out of the CAV earlier each week and walking the rest of the way. Today I saw crocuses and there are tiny green leaf buds on the tips of the tree branches. Just a sort of haze, at this point, but such a promise! And with almost 15 hours of sunlight already, the plants will take off and we will have fully leafed trees and flowers galore faster than you would believe if you haven't lived here.

I'm far from the only one with a new spring in my step, and the normally friendly people in this small town are practically effusive right now. We've been let out of winter! There is still snow melting on the mountain tops, so the creeks are running full. The avalanche danger decreases by the day, and no one is bothering to set off the guns and trigger any these days.

It's up to 50 degrees and taking a walk at lunch I don't need my jacket, which I'm not buttoning in the cooler mornings at any rate. Soon I will have it cleaned and put it in the closet for the summer. And that presents a minor problem, since I don't like to carry a purse and without jacket pockets (since it is reversible, two outside and two inside) where am going to put my wallet and keys and check book and calendar? They just don't put enough pockets in women's slacks! That all the days of my life would be full of such problems!

Crocuses courtesy of Nancy Rotenberg, natural tapestries

Spring Comes To The Cold Country

I have been reading on blogs, in newspapers, in magazines, just all over, really, about hills turning green and flowers budding and all the signs of spring. Crocuses breaking through the snow. Birds returning.

When I lived in Fairbanks , the first sign of spring was the opening of the local Dairy Queen. It was closed all winter, as the owner lived Outside when it was cold in Alaska, and when he returned for the summer, he opened it. Snow still on the ground, coats and boots still being worn, but Dairy Queen open, and we all stopped by and sat on the cold outdoor benches and ate ice cream. After a winter when the temperature went down to -50, sitting outdoors with snow still on the ground and eating ice cream seemed sane to us.

Yesterday, I looked down and realized I had just tracked mud onto the kitchen floor! The first sigh sign of spring, a filthy floor. Our record snowfall is melting! Today I didn't need my winter boots! Wearing shoes after months of boots feels so free (and, perhaps it is this need to get out of my boots that caused me to focus on my happy, hippy feet the other day.) Is it, I wonder, any more sane to be happy at the sight of a muddy floor than to sit outdoors in the snow and eat ice cream?