SE Michigan

2016/06/18

Nature’s Dance of Light & Sound

Boiling Clouds Before Storm2 - Fix

Boiling cloud line before a thunderstorm in West Chester, Ohio

As those of you who follow this blog are well aware I am fascinated with weather and gravitate towards the extremes in particular.  Growing up in the Midwest I saw all kinds of extreme meteorological conditions from ice storms to heat waves, blizzards to cold snaps and tornadoes to severe thunderstorms.  Without question one of my favorite kinds of intense weather involves the aforementioned severe thunderstorms.  There is something just so energizing and exciting about powerful storms capable of dropping hail and heavy rain as well as lighting the sky with intense lightning followed by explosive thunder!  While living in SE Michigan I became a trained weather spotter for the NWS (National Weather Service) and functioned in that capacity while living in the Cincinnati area as well.  I knew when I relocated to south central Alaska I was would see far fewer thunderstorms and those I did experience would be much less intense.  We just do not have the necessary long term heating along with sharply defined cold fronts or ‘dry lines’ traveling at high speeds and able to crash into hot, humid air masses.  We do get some uplift based on the geography – mainly the many mountain ranges – but these storms rarely reach moderate levels let alone severe.  In general our thunderstorms are mainly what some call ‘air mass’ storms which are of mild to moderate intensity, generally form against mountain ranges in the afternoons and quickly fall apart once they push off the front ranges.

I never expected I would so miss strong to severe thunderstorms nor did I realize just how much a part of my daily spring to summer existence was defined by the flash of lightning and consequent rumble of thunder.  But as I reflect upon the lack of thunderstorms in south-central Alaska I also remember I was not always so fond of these events.  In fact, when quite a bit younger, I was actually terrified of that ‘flash-crash’ sequence so much I couldn’t sleep when thunderstorms were active.  To this day I do not why I was so terrified; I’d never had a bad experience with said storms nor did I know anyone who had endured anything negative from such storms with the possible exception of a flooded basement.  But there was no denying my fear.  It became so bad my father finally decided to intervene; he began to take me out on our back porch when thunderstorms were rolling in and explain to me what they were, how they worked and how to count the seconds from a lightning flash to the resultant thunder as a means of determining a rough range to the lightning (by counting the number of seconds from the flash to the thunder and then dividing by ‘five’ to get the miles away).  Thanks to his patience my ungrounded fear slowly bled away and I came to truly love strong thunderstorms.

In fact, my love of strong thunderstorms grew to the point I often would wander outside during such storms just to experience their power and awe ‘up close and personal’.  In general this wasn’t really dangerous, although by today’s wimpy standards such behavior would be defined as ‘extremely dangerous’, but a few times I was most definitely ‘in harm’s way’.  More than once I’ve smelled ozone after a very close lightning strike; one must be almost ‘danger close’ to be able to perceive this odor.  And one time I actually ‘felt’ the remnants of a very strong,  close by strike.  Given the rain such storms generate I was almost always walking bare foot and this time was no different.  I remember the ‘flash-boom’ sequence being almost instantaneous meaning a very close lightning stroke; it was followed by a mild electric shock at my feet.  In hindsight I was far too close to said strike but luckily for me all I received was a warning shock..!  None of these experiences dampened my enthusiasm for powerful thunderstorms and I still possess said enthusiasm.

Back in May I was awakened around 04:00 by a loud blast; in a nod towards both how few thunderstorms I’ve seen since moving up here and how much I’m becoming an Alaskan upon being awakened I first thought it was an earthquake.  But then I heard more thunder off to the WSW and I knew it had been a healthy stroke of lightning from a thunderstorm.  Both my canine companions, Anana and Qanuk, appeared at the edge of my bed obviously concerned regarding the sudden, loud noise so early in the morning.  I sat up and took a few minutes to assure them everything was fine and it had just been thunder.  Then I saw another flash and immediately arose, put on some clothing, went downstairs and out onto the back porch to watch the show.  I was only outside for maybe a minute before I came back indoors and liberally applied a coating of ‘Deep Woods Off’ before returning to the back porch with my canine companions.  Although both remained a bit skittish regarding the thunder we had a great time.  During this it occurred to me I was passing on my father’s wisdom in soothing the dogs and assuring them there was nothing to fear.

Funny how someone could be so terrified of a natural phenomenon, learn to understand and then appreciate it, come to truly revel in its existence and then end up moving away from it and sorely miss its presence.  Life is all about choices and their consequences; I knew when I decided to relocate to Alaska I was basically giving up the opportunity to experience severe thunderstorms.  I had hoped maybe extreme winter weather might make up for the absence of said storms.  While I truly miss strong to severe thunderstorms I also truly love my ‘new’ home so this is one time I’m still ‘okay’ with the consequences of my decision.  But I’d be lying if I do not admit to eagerly watching as clouds darken the sky, hoping maybe I’ll once again see that flash and hear the resultant thunder…

Air Mass Tunderstorm Building

Severe thunderstorm over Cincinnati as viewed from a northern suburb (West Chester, OH)

2015/03/03

What Winter..?!?

It’s official; I’ve given up on the 2014-2015 ‘winter’ in south central Alaska!  Although it is just March 2nd and in a normal winter up here we’d be seeing snow and cold for at minimum another six weeks I’m betting we’ll see few snow events and those we see will be minimal (i.e. less than 6” total) in nature.  I’m sure we’ll see cold temps just as we have across the past four days but then we are already seeing regular high temps that break freezing if the sun is out even if we started with a single digit morning low temp.  Of course this reflects the lengthening days and with them the more direct sunlight but in a typical March we’d still be seeing snow and cold and that would easily extend into April.

This morning I measured the SWE (snow water equivalent) along with the snow depth for my Monday morning CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow network) report; the snow depth is a piddling 12.5” and it really isn’t snow but more like saturated snow or ice.  The SWE is 3.09” which equates to one inch of water equaling 4.045” of snow.  Anyone at all familiar with snow knows that in general an inch of liquid water will produce between 7 and 10 inches of snow; therefore this ‘snow’ is indeed saturated!  Looking back over February we broke the freezing mark 17 out of 28 days; keep in mind February is the third coldest month after December and January!  That basically means 61% of the days in the third coldest month in south central Alaska saw above freezing high temps.  Many comments come to mind but perhaps the most PC is:  “That’s just wrong!”

Most frustrating to me is the simple realization that this winter will go down in the records as one of the two warmest on the books; and the competition is last year’s ‘winter’!  So for the first two winters I’ve lived in Alaska there have been two record-breaking warm and dry ‘winters’.  Lest you need reminding I moved up here to experience feet of snow and bone chilling cold; the former hasn’t happened while we’ve seen maybe five days each ‘winter’ when the temps dropped below -20 F.  I swore if I see three such ‘winters’ in a row I was going to leave here and move north of Fairbanks; sadly this would only partly improve on the conditions as even the northern Interior has seen record warmth across the past two ‘winters’.

Meanwhile the place I left – SE Michigan – saw record snow last winter and has seen well above normal snow along with very cold temps across both winters.  Prior to leaving I was just fed up with SE Michigan’s winters which were largely brown with 36 F temps and rain.  In fact the winter of 2012-2013 saw a record absence of both snow and cold.  I recall thinking I didn’t care what the weather did in Michigan after I departed because I was guaranteed of seeing all the cold and snow I could handle in my new home.  So much for that belief…!!

So here I sit typing this whining blog entry while looking outside, seeing bright sunshine and an air temp of 26.4 F at 12:13 AKST.  If the sunshine remains we’ll easily cross 32 F by 17:15 which is the current warmest part of the day.  It is amazing that just six weeks back it was totally dark by 17:15; the light cycle is really exaggerated in the higher latitudes.  And I am looking forward to being able to get some much-needed outside work handled once a bit more of the icy snow-pack disappears.  I gave up a lot in terms of favored weather to relocate up here; I love severe thunderstorms and tornadic weather but neither of these occur at any time up here.  I also gave up the hardwood colors of fall when moving here; while the yellows and golds of the birch and larches are pretty I do miss the reds, oranges and violets or the maples, oaks and elms.  And I really do not care for the summer and its continual light!  I never realized how much of a night sky watcher I am until I completed my first full Alaskan summer in 2014; by the start of July I was very tired of constant light with no night sky.  The real issue is such conditions will not return until middle August.  At least the summers up here are much cooler than those in SE Michigan although because I live in the middle of the boreal forest the humidity is almost as bad.

By penning this I’ve demonstrated I’m no Alaskan yet as real Alaskans just shrug off unusual weather and get on with business.  I just have a hard time when I realize now I will not be seeing the possibility for a true Alaskan winter until November of 2015!  However, beyond the weather there’s a myriad to love about my home and I really need to focus on all that and just let go of the lack of real winter weather to this point.  A few of the locals have warned me to be careful what I wish for; while I hear them I would love to see four feet of snow-pack and weeks of air temps rising to just single digits while dropping into the negative teens or even lower!  Hopefully one day I will get the opportunity before I’m too old to really appreciate such conditions.  But given what I’ve seen to date such conditions are at best very unlikely this ‘winter’.  And so I’ve plunged my imaginary fork into the ‘winter’ of 2014-2015 as it is ‘done’!

What I should be seeing when I walk to the intersection of East Barge Drive and Riven. Sadly the unmaintained portion of EBD has bits of the gravel road surface visible through the disappearing snow and ice.

What I should be seeing when I walk to the intersection of East Barge Drive and Riven. Sadly the unmaintained portion of EBD has bits of the gravel road surface visible through the disappearing snow and ice even though it’s just now March.