Feb 25, 2015
Although there is still 2' of snow on the ground, it sure
looks like Winter is waning. Temperatures the past couple weeks ran from
+20-+40. The last couple nights sleep has been disturbed by large sheets of the
3+ feet of snow sliding off the roof.
This is nice, no doubt but at the same time is worrisome.
When I came to Alaska in 1990, Winter began in earnest near the beginning of
October. I well remember answering my door on Halloween to see heavily clothed
kids with their treat bags open at -30 degrees.
Other sure signs of winter included the freezing of the
rivers. By mid December, my trapper friends were crossing these fast and
powerful behemoths on foot and by snow machine. This year they never really
froze over with any certainty. "Our" river is the fastest in Alaska,
running about 25 nautical miles an hour and pushing anything in its way, out of
its way with aplomb. As of this date, it still has some open water and more
showing up daily.
But, as local rivers go, it is not huge - less than a
hundred feet across. Barely a tenth of a mile down it empties into the Copper
River which can expand to more than a mile across. Into the Copper run all the
rivers from the surrounding Wrangle-St. Elias and Chugach mountains some 90
miles or so to Prince William Sound and from their to the Northern Pacific.
This year it still has much open water.
Last months newspaper had an article about our permafrost
melt problem and it's potential problems of not only buckling buildings and
roads but releasing enormous amounts of CO and CO2 into the atmosphere that has
previously been stored in the permanently frozen ground since the last ice age.
As predicted by all the old and recent climate studies,
the Arctic and Northern Latitudes would warm at an early and excessive rate
before it worked its way South. The rate in the last couple years is holding at
2 degrees - about twice as much as "Outside" as we call anyplace that
is not here.
Hm-m - just had a flash from wa-a-a-y back, unbidden,
crashing into my Alaskaness. Maine, on the other northern corner of this
country call's people who aren't born there as "coming from away".
When I was a child, Bangor was full of snow - as kids, we made tunnels
everywhere. By the 1960's, winters were more ice and rain. This year (2014-5)
is a return to the old days - with a vengeance.
Today's news had an article that the meltage that I
observe by simply living here is now officially putting 1.5x the fresh water
into the North Pacific as the entire Mississippi is pouring into the Gulf of
Mexico. I'd say that's a pretty solid indicator as the grand old Mississippi
drains 31 States and 2 Canadian provinces.
By 'just living here', well, I live on a river so I have
to pay attention to its speed and height. When I first got here, there were
real Glaciers that came up very close to the highway. Now you can't even see
where they were - they're back in the mountains somewhere. But, for the 'gold
standard' of proof, consider this. Anchorage
makes millions on the start of the Iditarod - but not this year. No snow on the
ground. This has happened on occasion previously, so it is no big deal to move
it out to "Big Lake", about 50 miles NE of Anchorage but... no snow
there either. OK , make the unheard of move 300 miles north to Fairbanks. Oops,
hanging near freezing barely up in Fairbanks, where to go now?
Spring certainly isn't here yet but it is for sure not winter.
Winter could return with a vengeance but it's a wait and see game. We've had
"Chinooks" before - sudden warmup even moving 50 degrees in a matter
of hours but this one had no wind and it's hanging around instead of going back
down as suddenly as it went up.
Up until some time in the late 1990's/early 2000's, no
outside planting could be done before about June 10th due to ground temps. Most
of us have greenhouses but even they needed heat in May.
I'll write again when I see the buds coming out - normally
not until late April but if this keeps on, it could be March. When I came here
it Winter was 7 months long - this year looks like maybe 2-3 months long. Scary
stuff.
OK - been holding off of sending this as the weather is
so confusing. Last week various songbirds came back and were a joy to hear -
particularly about a month before normal. Then suddenly it dropped to -30 for 3
nights and is now on its way up to 'above freezing'. Hope the songbirds didn't
all die off. Our bird feeders are busy but with mostly our winter Redpolls,
Grosbeaks, Jays and magpies and yesterday a very hungry woodpecker.
Later, Mary
--
I returned, and saw under the sun,
that
the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong,
neither
yet bread to the wise,
nor
yet riches to men of understanding,
nor yet favour to men of skill;
but
time and chance happeneth to them all.
Ecclesiastes
9:11
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