Something kinda exciting and potentially frightening started this weekend. Mt. Redoubt a volcano which lies across Cook Inlet about 100 miles had a series of small tremors within the cone starting yesterday.
From the AVO
"
REDOUBT VOLCANO (CAVW #1103-03-)
60°29'7" N 152°44'38" W, Summit Elevation 10197 ft (3108 m)
Current Volcano Alert Level: ADVISORY
Current Aviation Color Code: YELLOW
Earlier this morning, AVO elevated the Aviation Color Code to YELLOW and the Volcano Alert Level to ADVISORY at Redoubt Volcano. Beginning about 4:00 pm AKDT on December 27 (0100 December 28 UTC), small repetitive earthquakes began to occur in the vicinity of the volcano's summit. Activity is continuing this morning; these earthquakes are very small and have decreased in frequency overnight. These earthquakes represent a departure from seismicity at the volcano over the past five months. (See http://www.avo.alaska.edu/webicorders/Redoubt/RSO_EHZ_AV.php). Clouds currently obscure web camera and satellite views of the volcano.
These earthquakes could be precursory to renewed eruptive activity at the volcano and increased instability of the lava dome. Whether this will result in explosive activity or collapse of the lava dome is unknown at this time. However, there is a heightened possibility of volcanic activity that would produce a volcanic ash cloud and associated ash fall, pyroclastic avalanches, and lahars and flooding down the Drift River.
AVO is monitoring the situation closely and will attempt to overfly the volcano when weather allows.
Heavily ice-mantled Redoubt volcano is located on the western side of Cook Inlet, 170 km (106 mi) southwest of Anchorage and 82 km (51 mi) west of Kenai, within Lake Clark National Park. Redoubt is a stratovolcano which rises to 10,197 feet above sea level. Recent eruptions occurred in 1902, 1966-68, 1989-90, and 2009. The 1989-90 and 2009 eruptions produced mudflows, or lahars, that traveled down the Drift River and partially flooded the Drift River Oil Terminal facility. The ash plumes produced by the 1989-90 and 2009 eruptions significantly disrupted air traffic and resulted in minor or trace amounts of ash in the city of Anchorage and other communities in south-central and interior Alaska."
If you'd like to read more go here. About halfway down the page on the right you'll find the seismic readouts, labeled RSAM. It gives a good picture of what is happening now versus the period in which Redoubt erupted in April. Pretty cool stuff, something I'll be keeping an eye on.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
About time
I'm not sure how but it has been two weeks since my last post...
The town is abuzz with life as the Anchorage International Film Festival is in full swing. I missed the opening weekend but will be checking out some of the entries this weekend. Most notably I'm interested in the "about Alaska by Alaska films". I'm typically not real big on movies as I haven't been to the theater in awhile, actually I guess it was this summer. Any way I enjoy catching movies on TV that I know nothing about. In a way the AIFF is the same as I know nothing about the majority of these films and have only read about a couple. I'm looking forward to it.
The weather has been mild, typically in the teens or twenties. We haven't had snow since Thanksgiving weekend, so my snowman, oh yeah I built a snowman, has not grown any and is waiting for fresh snow for his arms. He is no Snowzilla, "Oh this snowman has had a very trying year, with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada and that country's refusal to accept him, well, I guess that's more than most 16 foot tall snowman can handle...Snowzilla" No word on Snowzillas return this year...
The city has been socked in by fog for the past few days. I think they call it inversion, basically it is warmer up in the mountains around town and the cold air has sunk into the bowl. LA, Vegas and the like deal with the same thing only they have smog. Everything around town has what appears to be a bad case of freezer burn. Basically tiny ice particles that have frozen out of the fog. Tree limbs, pine needs, mailboxes, the 1982 Datsun Camper that has been parked outside for weeks, everything.
BTW, this will probably come as big news to most of you, but for those that know of my outstanding athletic abilities it should be no shock. I will be competing in the next winter Olympics. Not this year in Vancouver or Whistler, well somewhere in BC, but the next time. I will be competing in the event where you cross country ski and shoot things. This weekend I plan on finding the nearest Play it Again Sports and purchasing a pair of XCountry Skis. The rifle will come much later. Get ready folks, picture it, podium, snow falling, me, medal, draped in the flag, all the while in the background, SnS. After the National Anthem of course...
The town is abuzz with life as the Anchorage International Film Festival is in full swing. I missed the opening weekend but will be checking out some of the entries this weekend. Most notably I'm interested in the "about Alaska by Alaska films". I'm typically not real big on movies as I haven't been to the theater in awhile, actually I guess it was this summer. Any way I enjoy catching movies on TV that I know nothing about. In a way the AIFF is the same as I know nothing about the majority of these films and have only read about a couple. I'm looking forward to it.
The weather has been mild, typically in the teens or twenties. We haven't had snow since Thanksgiving weekend, so my snowman, oh yeah I built a snowman, has not grown any and is waiting for fresh snow for his arms. He is no Snowzilla, "Oh this snowman has had a very trying year, with the litigation, the notoriety, his subsequent deportation to Canada and that country's refusal to accept him, well, I guess that's more than most 16 foot tall snowman can handle...Snowzilla" No word on Snowzillas return this year...
The city has been socked in by fog for the past few days. I think they call it inversion, basically it is warmer up in the mountains around town and the cold air has sunk into the bowl. LA, Vegas and the like deal with the same thing only they have smog. Everything around town has what appears to be a bad case of freezer burn. Basically tiny ice particles that have frozen out of the fog. Tree limbs, pine needs, mailboxes, the 1982 Datsun Camper that has been parked outside for weeks, everything.
BTW, this will probably come as big news to most of you, but for those that know of my outstanding athletic abilities it should be no shock. I will be competing in the next winter Olympics. Not this year in Vancouver or Whistler, well somewhere in BC, but the next time. I will be competing in the event where you cross country ski and shoot things. This weekend I plan on finding the nearest Play it Again Sports and purchasing a pair of XCountry Skis. The rifle will come much later. Get ready folks, picture it, podium, snow falling, me, medal, draped in the flag, all the while in the background, SnS. After the National Anthem of course...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving
A little culinary history here for ya!
At the very first Thanksgiving neither Turkey nor Chicken was available. However there was an excess of eggs. In search of protein for their feast the parties involved turned to Deviled Eggs. This also answers the age old question, or at least in North America. Which came first the chicken or the egg, it was the egg. Both Chicken and Turkey were introduced later.
So to honor this little known nugget of history, Ive decided to connect Alaska to Russia via Deviled Egg Bridge. By my count it will take 72 Deviled Eggs. Below is an artist rendition of what will surely be a wonder of the world.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
At the very first Thanksgiving neither Turkey nor Chicken was available. However there was an excess of eggs. In search of protein for their feast the parties involved turned to Deviled Eggs. This also answers the age old question, or at least in North America. Which came first the chicken or the egg, it was the egg. Both Chicken and Turkey were introduced later.
So to honor this little known nugget of history, Ive decided to connect Alaska to Russia via Deviled Egg Bridge. By my count it will take 72 Deviled Eggs. Below is an artist rendition of what will surely be a wonder of the world.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Monday, November 16, 2009
Winter Blitzkrieg
8 days ago we received our first snow, temperatures hovered around 20, nothing too bad. This weekend I was informed by a friend in the "lower" that a cold front was headed my way. I figured it was a joke and that he was referring to winter. I took the time to scope out the weather and he was right. As of 9 pm it was -1 F outside. The forecast calls for nights reaching -15 this week, aggressive and probably not but still. Winter moves fast up here, fast like tank, the occupation has started.
No big news out of Dutch for my DC friends, although it looks like the CM has wrapped up fishing early and the boys will be home in time for Thanksgiving.
President Obama stopped by to say "hi" last week to the troops on base.
A new gas powered gun will send supplies into space from Adak
The Northern Lights have their own rating system and it seems Thursday night the viewing opportunity will be "Moderate", this will also be the case on Saturday. I'd like to get some video footage for all of you but I'm not sure if I have the proper equipment.
The Sports Leader has 24 hours of basketball starting an hour or so ago, all your Spartan hoops are belong to my DVR!
No big news out of Dutch for my DC friends, although it looks like the CM has wrapped up fishing early and the boys will be home in time for Thanksgiving.
President Obama stopped by to say "hi" last week to the troops on base.
A new gas powered gun will send supplies into space from Adak
The Northern Lights have their own rating system and it seems Thursday night the viewing opportunity will be "Moderate", this will also be the case on Saturday. I'd like to get some video footage for all of you but I'm not sure if I have the proper equipment.
The Sports Leader has 24 hours of basketball starting an hour or so ago, all your Spartan hoops are belong to my DVR!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Akin to watching paint dry or grass grow...
Except when the miniature Polar Bear chases the diminutive albino Moose across the yard.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
day 1 of many
Big thaw on the way, sometime in April.
The first of the snow has arrived, 1 to 3 inches tonight. More snow to follow Monday through Wednesday. I've been eager to see the snow, not sure why exactly. I was tempted to attempt a fort or snowman but something tells me I'll have plenty opportunity to do so in the near future. I guess I forgot about how the nighttime sky glows with snow on the ground, its a kinda pinkish orange thing going on. Its only been snowing for a couple hours, small flakes but it is building up pretty quickly, I'm sure that is a sign of how quickly things can get out of hand up here. I think it is early yet but I'm guessing the Northern Lights will be out in the near future.
Not sure how I missed this one, but the King Crab season started Oct 15th...
if you want to ruin the viewing enjoyment that is Teh Deadliest Catch click here
Not sure how I missed this one, but the King Crab season started Oct 15th...
if you want to ruin the viewing enjoyment that is Teh Deadliest Catch click here
Monday, October 26, 2009
How do people keep these up
I guess I just don't have enough going on in my life because I struggle to find stuff to post. My typical day is the same, trips to the grocery store or the library don't seem to be blog worthy. Hmm maybe I'll go with a play by play account of my next library trip. Things here are good though and I'll try to come up some new material outside of weather, grilling etc.
Today however, I have a few things one of which is the weather.
It started raining today. I've been told a few times that the winter shows signs of it's arrival. The first sign is snow in the mountains. My first post as you may recall was about the snow falling in the mountains, Termination Dust as it is called. The second sign is rain, cold rain and grey days slowly morphing into grey days with snow. A couple weeks ago the rain started it rained all weekend, it was cold and wet. Come Monday the snow in the mountains had melted and by Sunday it was 60 outside. Well, last Friday the snow showed up in the mountains again, today it started to rain. So, potentially the snow is on the way. The forecast has rain today which was accurate, not all that common really, the forecast typically misses on the dry side. According to Wunderground the current rain will transition into snow, leaving up to 1in in town. I'll believe it when I see it. Snow also to follow on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it, I want to see some snow. Maybe not, I hear this voice in the back of my mind telling me "be careful what you ask for".
One of the cool things about Anchorage is the view of the Aleutian Range and to the north the Alaskan Range, which includes Denali. BTW, the Alaska Range is not part of the Continental Divide, last year this time I swore it was. More often then not the view of Denali isn't there. Looking southwest across Knik Arm and then further to Cook Inlet and its western shore the Aleutian Range or at least parts of it are visible. Yesterday was a rare day, you could see both. What was a cloudy overcast day in Anchorage with snow falling in the Chugach Mtns to the east. To the west though, the sun was out. Below are some pictures taken from downtown looking to the southwest towards the Aleutians. My camera, which typically I think is pretty sweet failed me on this one. Just like in Denali, it is hard to describe the size, yesterday the Mnts looked huge, shimmering in the sun. In my pictures, not so huge. Any way, enjoy.
Today however, I have a few things one of which is the weather.
It started raining today. I've been told a few times that the winter shows signs of it's arrival. The first sign is snow in the mountains. My first post as you may recall was about the snow falling in the mountains, Termination Dust as it is called. The second sign is rain, cold rain and grey days slowly morphing into grey days with snow. A couple weeks ago the rain started it rained all weekend, it was cold and wet. Come Monday the snow in the mountains had melted and by Sunday it was 60 outside. Well, last Friday the snow showed up in the mountains again, today it started to rain. So, potentially the snow is on the way. The forecast has rain today which was accurate, not all that common really, the forecast typically misses on the dry side. According to Wunderground the current rain will transition into snow, leaving up to 1in in town. I'll believe it when I see it. Snow also to follow on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to it, I want to see some snow. Maybe not, I hear this voice in the back of my mind telling me "be careful what you ask for".
One of the cool things about Anchorage is the view of the Aleutian Range and to the north the Alaskan Range, which includes Denali. BTW, the Alaska Range is not part of the Continental Divide, last year this time I swore it was. More often then not the view of Denali isn't there. Looking southwest across Knik Arm and then further to Cook Inlet and its western shore the Aleutian Range or at least parts of it are visible. Yesterday was a rare day, you could see both. What was a cloudy overcast day in Anchorage with snow falling in the Chugach Mtns to the east. To the west though, the sun was out. Below are some pictures taken from downtown looking to the southwest towards the Aleutians. My camera, which typically I think is pretty sweet failed me on this one. Just like in Denali, it is hard to describe the size, yesterday the Mnts looked huge, shimmering in the sun. In my pictures, not so huge. Any way, enjoy.
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