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/