After the storm

It started snowing Monday night and stopped Thursday morning, and I estimate that in the end we got around 24-30 inches of snow.  A lot of it was light and dry 'ocean effect' snow.  Moisture off of the water that turns to snow when a cold wind blows from the North.  This sort of snow is heaviest at the north end of town where we live.  Less snow fell at the south end of town.

I took these pictures yesterday afternoon.  I XC skied from the house to the park and did a few laps around the lake.  And then I started shoveling.  I did a lot of shoveling.  But I don't mind shoveling - I'm kind of hoping we get some more snow!  Bring it on!
Patrick

Measuring Snow

Something is wrong with the meteorological data at the Kodiak airport.  I noticed a few years ago that snow totals were not matching up with what I observed on the ground (click here for previous blog post on subject).  I also noticed that when precipitation falls as snow it consistently seems to get under recorded.  Based on my observations the precipitation totals for snow storms are about a third of what they should be based upon the amount of snow that fell.

In the old days an inch of precipitation generally equaled a foot of snow - less if the snow was wet, and a little more if it fell as dry snow.  If I saw that we got a an inch of precipitation at the airport I knew I could expect about a foot of new snow when I went skiing at the pass.  And this is still generally true if the precipitation falls as all rain at the airport but as snow on the mountain.

This winter the snow totals got ridiculously erroneous and I noticed that in the new year they have even seemed to stop measuring the snow entirely.  For the entire winter I think we are up to about 3 inches of snow total (click here for Kodiak climate data).  We are also supposedly pretty low on precipitation for the year at about 5 inches less than normal - including today we are now up to about 2.5 inches of precipitation total.  I am pretty sure that both these numbers are flat out wrong.

This morning I woke up to well over a foot of new snow and checked the weather stats for the airport - in 24 hours we had received 0.343 inches.  So that should equal 3-4 inches of snow.  I just checked again and yesterday we got .24 inches of precipitation and so far today (as of 10 PM) we are at 0.313.  So storm total is at around 0.583.  So according to what the weather service reported for precipitation we should have a little more than 1/2 a foot of new snow on the ground.  Yet from what I have measured and heard reported from others the total is really more like 20-24 inches.  Something is fishy - based on snow amounts we should have received around 2 inches of precipitation.

I think accurate precipitation and snow measurements is important.  For one thing how can you say climate change is effecting the weather if you are not accurately measuring precipitation and snow totals?  The Kodiak weather data goes back to 1908, and now in 2020 we decide to stop measuring snow - what is going on?  Also, I hear people talking about how this winter is so much snowier than normal, or how it is like the old days.  But how can we compare it to past winters if we are not measuring the snow or getting the precipitation totals right?  More importantly on the mornings when I check the weather data from the airport I have no idea how much snow I will find when I drive out the road.  This is more than annoying.

This morning I was wondering what would happen if our storm did turn into a disaster and Kodiak needed assistance from FEMA.  Would we tell them about the high winds and 1/2 inch of precipitation?  A half inch of precipitation as snow would hardly qualify as a blizzard.

Right now according to weather service measurements it is looking like we are in the midst of a drought - but is this really the case?  Are we getting enough water to keep the Terror Lake water levels high? Precipitation data is also important in gauging salmon escapement.

I find it inconceivable that the weather service can't measure these things accurately in 2020. If Anchorage can do it why can't we?

Patrick

Postscript 1/30/20 Thursday: We ended up getting another 6 inches overnight.  So total storm at my house of around 24-30 inches!  I think that is the biggest snow storm I have experienced since I moved to Kodiak.

Another day on Salonie Creek

Salonie Creek was so nice on Saturday that I went there again on Sunday.  Only this time I took my skate skis.  I went with Philip who again took his classic XC skis.  Taking skate skis involved a compromise - I knew that the first part of the ski before we got to the river, and that the upper river and canyon would be too soft for good skate skiing.  But I also knew that the middle part - 3 miles of wide open, skate 'ski park' terrain was too prime to resist.

And so I doubled poled with a soft pole plant behind Philip through the cottonwood trees for the first mile.  I did my sacrifice, and then took off like a rocket ship on the river.  I went all over the place like a terrier chasing a scent while Philip resolutely made his way up the middle of the wide open river plane on his stodgy slow classic skis.  I periodically doubled back to check in on him.

And then up by the canyon the snow on the crust got deep and the crust breakable.  My wings refused to fly and I was grounded.  I had brought along small 'kicker' climbing skins which I taped to middle of the bottoms of my skate skis and turned them into classic skis - albeit with a pretty poor glide.

And so Philip once again took the lead as we paraded on up into the canyon.  We did not go all the way up to the icicles, but it was, as always, the same beautiful canyon.  And then it was time to rip off the climbing skins and once again fly on skate skis. .... ....

A 4 or 5 mile rip - all slightly downhill to the car.

Patrick

Salonie Creek Canyon

Lower section of the Salonie Creek Canyon

Yesterday Ryan, Philip and I skied up the Salonie Creek valley and up into the canyon.  The last few days I had been skiing up into the Buskin River canyon, and Salonie seems like the Grand Canyon in comparison.   In the old days we used to do this ski on a regular basis, but with the warm winters it has become a rare occurrence.

I checked the blog for the last time I went up into the canyon and it was in February 2018.  It also looked a little desperate compared to what we found this time (click here for link to 2018 blog post).  I looked at some other trips  from the past - click here, here and here for some old posts - and realized that it really was along time ago when we used to do the Salonie ski on a regular basis.  Basically 2009 was the last year we did the trip a bunch of times.  That's 10 years ago!

It is a beautiful trip into a canyon that seems more like Montana than Kodiak.  Huge cottonwood trees silhouetted against the ski.  Deep snow and the creek showing here in there at the bottom of deep holes in the snow with icicles on the surrounding ice.  On this trip the lower section on the dry riverbed flats was firm while the upper section was fluffy snow.  In the old days we mostly went up the river on skate skis but yesterday we used classic gear.

Every year the goal of the trip is to get to the blue icicles far up the canyon.  The ice is about 100 feet high and quite impressive.  Ryan is an ice climber and I could see him assessing the ice climbing potential.  At this point, the canyon sides get super steep and just past this the whole canyon is HUGE boulders.

Yesterday I wanted to go around the corner and make it to the furthest point I have ever gone up the canyon (I made it around the corner to the boulders way back in 1999 I believe).  But it was not to be - I tried to cross a pool of water below the cliffs and ice catastrophically failed.  It was a disaster in slow motion as the ice slowly started to sink and break up with me on top of it.  I got to the side just in time and managed to keep my feet dry!

Today I think I will return to Salonie and try the trip in skate skis!
Patrick

Upper section of the Salonie Creek Canyon - the blue icicles visible in distance

This is as far as we got. .... 

Entering the canyon

Philip and Ryan out on the dry riverbed

Normal view (1 picture not cropped) for scale of Philip and Ryan below icicles 

Panoramic view of Philip and Ryan below icicles (6 pictures stitched together)

Returning home down the canyon

A herd of deer - they are having a hard time with the snow

Flying home along the dry riverbed

Trail through the cottonwood trees near the car

Stormy seas and blue skies

Every evening last week while I was  helping Stuey with his paper route there was a spectacular sunset. And every time I wished I had my camera.  For the past week it has been all sunny skies and stiff breezes.  I think the wind has been putting particulates in the air and that's why the sunsets have been so spectacular.  Blue pink and orange.

I love this weather!
Patrick

Spruce cape surf

In the canyon up near the waterfall

Ripping on the Lake

Crossing Buskin Lake on classic XC skis was pretty fun, but ripping around on the big sheet of ice in skate XC skis REALLY fun.  Off of the lake surface the snow crust is still too soft to hold up a skate skier - so no skate anywhere crust cruising yet.  But skate skiing on lakes is good enough for me, and super convenient.  I can get in my afternoon ski without having to drive all that far.
Patrick

Snow falling on Trees

I took these pictures last Saturday when we had our last decent snow storm, and I had forgotten to post them.  This was the storm that turned to mostly rain at our house but was pretty much all snow just a short ways inland.

What is amazing is that it has stayed cold, and that even at our house the snow is still soft on top.  You most definitely can not walk on the crust.  Inland the trees still even have snow on their branches after almost a whole week has passed.  This is not the typical Kodiak weather of the last few winters.  I do remember that when I moved here we generally had a month or 2 of this sort of weather every winter.  But with climate change it is no longer the norm.

A snowy landscape is so much brighter and cheerful.  You can walk under the trees in the park at night without a flashlight.  The light reflects off of the snow like there is a full moon. Nothing dark and brown  about the past few weeks!

I certainly appreciate it and am taking advantage of it.
Patrick

Ice Bridges

On Tuesday Elke and I skied across Buskin Lake and up the river.  Absolutely gorgeous and one of my favorite skis.  A couple of weeks ago I was going further up the river and into the canyon.  But then most of the ice bridges collapsed and further progress limited.

On this trip I was heartened to see that the ice bridges are rebuilding.   Sections of the river are freezing up, and best of all the river has gotten 'clogged' under the ice in places and created over flow.  The ice clog dams up the river and backs it up into a a sort of pond upstream.  It flows and freezes a new layer on top of the old ice.  This is how the river builds up a thick layer of ice that is often quite a ways above the water running underneath.  Generally our XC ski trail runs along on a shelf beside the river, and we use the ice bridges to cross the river places.

The river is generally only knee deep at the deepest so the consequences of falling into the water are minimal.  I have had ice bridges collapse when I was on top - generally you are standing on top of the ice and have time to step off without getting wet.  But it is still exciting!
Patrick