Pussy Willows

Break-Up Update

River still has about 5 feet of ice on it here.  Break-up is a huge deal here, and this year it's a little late.  Everyone is getting anxious to go out on the river in their boats!

Here's an update from the Alaska Weather Service:

"One of the coldest springs during the past century across northern Alaska has resulted in a significant delay in the melting of the winter snowpack and breakup of river ice. The current outlook from the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center indicates breakup will be 10 days to two weeks later than normal. In addition, there is an increased risk of ice jams and flooding.

Daytime temperatures across much of the Interior are expected to be in the 50's to near 60 the next several days which is near normal for this time of the year. Cooler than normal temperatures are forecast to return to much of the Interior next week."

It's Still $&%(#(@ Winter

Ok, so even though there is ice and such melting,  and the birds are SLOWLY coming to Bethel, there is still hoarfrost and things freezing and snow on the ground.

This is a picture I took yesterday morning of some hoarfrost:

KNOM just posted a picture on their facebook page of it snowing in Nome and wrote this:

"And so it snows, and so it snows...A small reminder that we live in Western Alaska, and winter has not yet released its grasp, even though it's May 8th."

Pictures from Camping last weekend

Here are some pictures I took when I went into Anchorage last weekend.  We stayed in a yurt in Chugach State Park on Friday night, went hiking Saturday, driving and shopping for supplies on Sunday and more hiking, and then doing last minute things on Monday.

Ice Update

It's still getting springier:  more and more tundra is showing everyday, and there have been birds (swans) spotted around Bethel.  Once the Sandhill Cranes show up it will be spring.

The National Weather Service just posted some ice thickness data.  They usually measure the ice on the first of each month.  If you don't remember, I live right on the Kuskokwim River.

And this is what they wrote:

May arrived and most of Alaska's rivers are still locked in ice. NWS staff and river observers collect ice thickness data around the 1st day of each month during the winter. However, except on the North Slope and northwest Alaska, by the start of May ice is typically gone or unsafe for measurements. Not so this remarkably backwards spring. Ice thickness and snow on the ice at nearly all measured locations in the central Interior was THICKER than at the start of April.

Historical ice thickness information for the entire state can be found on the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center website at:

http://aprfc.arh.noaa.gov/