Three Days

Three days ago, it was -6° F. at this hour. Today it's 38 above. That's 44 degrees warmer than on Tuesday.

The three inches of snow that fell overnight is wet, and slides off the cars with only a little urging.

The frozen roadways, mostly bare during the week of sub-zero temps, are now doing their best impression of a skating rink. The melty snow and sprinkles of rain are turning to icy patches on contact.

The drive to work this morning was sketchy, at best. Later, when the traffic is sufficiently heavy, it could get ugly. Makes me very glad I work such an early shift.


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Here's an update on the "Alaskan Bush People" story from yesterday:

A Juneau Superior Court judge has rejected a plea deal that would have allowed stars of the "Alaskan Bush People" series to avoid jail time for Permanent Fund dividend fraud.

[snip] “I don’t think the Browns should be treated more harshly because they have a TV show. … but they certainly shouldn’t be treated more leniently because of that either,” the judge said.

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Today's local newspaper/fishwrapper feature an editorial about Republican lawmakers who are sounding the alarm about letting Syrian refugees into the country. The tone of the op-ed is predictable:

There must be seven or eight Republican politicians in Alaska who haven't shared panic-stricken statements about the Syrian refugee crisis, pretending to know what's really going on.

What's wrong with these slackers? They aren't doing their part to create hysteria or display the depth of their understanding of world events.

 But wait! There's a flag on the play:

The Big Melt

From the Anchorage Daily News: A 50-mile stretch of the Richardson Highway outside Valdez will remain closed until at least Monday as crews charged with clearing avalanche debris work to bring down unstable snow in Thompson Pass.

Multiple avalanches early Friday morning blocked the highway, effectively cutting off Valdez by road. The slides measured several hundred feet long and between 30 and 40 feet deep, said Jeremy Woodrow, a state Department of Transportation spokesman.

From the Alaska Dispatch: The Richardson Highway near Valdez is not in good shape, to put it mildly. And that's the problem. Mild weather -- with snow, rain and freezing rain that have plagued Alaska for more than a week -- has brought down at least five avalanches between mile 12 and 64 of the Richardson Highway since Jan. 23. The road will remain closed until Monday, or possibly even Tuesday. 

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Race officials called off the Tustumena 200 sled dog race on the Kenai Peninsula on Friday.

The Anchorage Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1cftNMp ) the run of mild weather and rain wiped out much of the snow in south-central Alaska. Earlier this week, the Northern Lights 300 at Big Lake was also cancelled.

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On a personal note, it's 41 degrees here at Casa del Pablo at 9:42 a.m. Not your typical January morning by any means. (The normal high for this date is 23° F.)

One other thing: Older Daughter, the Appleseed instructor finished her first AR-15 build last night. Price came in right at $500. Not bad at all.

What a Sloppy Mess

We had ice this morning, and then freezing rain. Now it's 42° and the streets are standing full of water. It can't drain away because the sides of the roads are lined with small icebergs and huge clumps of melting snow.

Intersections are flooded, creeks are rising ... and now the high winds are moving in, with expected gusts here in town up to 50 mph, and 80 mph on the hillside. What a mess!

Break-up in Alaska

Y'all call it Spring. We call it break-up, and it's the ugliest time of year. Dirty, melting snow (and this year, we've got a LOT of it), standing water that can't escape through the frozen, snow-covered drains or swales ...

I took this a few minutes ago at the gas station. The rest of the parking lot was under more water than where I was.

And So It Begins

We've entered a pattern of lows in single-digits to mid-teens, with highs in the 30s and 40s, along with plenty of sunshine. The packed snow in parking lots melts, forming large lakes which then refreeze overnight into large skating rinks.

We're digging the sunshine, though.

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I note with sadness that North has ended his blog. We'll miss your insight, buddy.

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There's nothing of particular interest in the local news, so this post is shorter than I first imagined it. Have a great day!

Too Warm

There's no getting away from the jet stream.

Not this one

This one

With the record cold, blizzards, and the tornadoes that the cold front caused in the Lower 48, we've had an unseasonable warm-up, here. (Please note I'm not trying to equate warm temps with the horrible events to the south.)

For the last few weeks, we've had subzero lows and single-digit high temps. But on Friday we had a high of 43, 48 yesterday, and it's already 41 degrees at 8:30 a.m. today.

The Friday warm-up was accompanied by rains, turning the roads and parking lots - all solidly frozen - into ice-skating rinks. Walking is hazardous, to say the least. It now appears that about half the snow has melted, and large patches of pavement have appeared. A typical drive now entails dry pavement, wet pavement, black ice, and water-covered ice.

Jan. 2, 2011

Yesterday, the power went off in our part of town at 3 pm. We sat at home with kerosene lamps for awhile, and then decided to go out for dinner. Lights were on again when we returned at 6:30, but going out was the alternative to buying take-out, and eating in the dark at home.

So that was our New Year's Day. Let's see what January 2nd brings.