Sunday, January 28, 2018

Weird Weather the New Norm

It has been four years of above-average winter temperatures in Homer, with winters feeling like spring or fall, with the grays of those seasons more common than the white of winter. This year is the all-time record high temperatures since recording began in the early 1900's. We now know that the poles are warming faster than the equator, and the uncertainty around skiing has become the new norm:  the Kachemak Nordic Ski Club now puts TBA for many events--date and place dependent on snow, and rather than committing themselves to saying when and where it is going to happen, saying it will happen, snow dependent.

I've seen ice flows before--just random places where water seeps out of the ground and creates an icy patch on the trail, but this year, it seems like at the McNeil trails, which are dominated by boggy areas, there were many more ice flows than usual.  The groomers adjusted by just going way out of their way around it, where they could, creating a new groomed trail.

Water flows on the ski trails

More flows


Luckily it is not all like that!

Warming and thawing, which is the new norm in Homer it appears, is wreaking havoc on roads, which are just breaking apart, with giant potholes appearing seemingly overnight. On our road, the ditch has overflowed because of frozen culverts so instead of running under the road the flow is now all over the road, an icy, slushy mess that will continue to get worse till the borough gets out and thaws the culvert.

Temperatures in the 40's is now common, and while some folks like it, it also means that many times the precipitation is coming down when the temperatures are at freezing, creating insanely icy conditions. A few nights ago it was 24 degrees, but drizzling, turning the roads into random slick spots. Oh what fun! 

Thursday, January 25, 2018

The Big Shake!

The earthquake that shook Alaska early Tuesday morning was a very large shared event for folks in Homer, who got the double whammy of the quake, along with a tsunami warning. I had the good fortune of sleeping through the whole thing. I awoke Tuesday, turned on my light and wondered why all my dresser drawers were open. I was able to shrug it off, until my husband said, "The pool is closed--we had a big quake last night and school is delayed."  That got me awake quite quickly, and the rest of the day was a series of folks sharing "their experience".  Here's a few slices of experiences.

My husband was barely awake through the quake itself, and he rated it a 6.5 or 7.0 maybe, rather than the 7.9 it was rated at. What woke him up was the slew of texts and phone calls he started getting once the tsunami warning was put out. The high school is one of the "safe places" in Homer, along with the hospital, because it is 300 feet above sea level and just over a mile inland. Somewhere around 50-70 folks in the tsunami evacuation area came into the school (along with a variety of pets such as gerbils, hamsters, etc.), while others just parked in the parking lot. The assistant principal lives in the evacuation area so luckily she was in and unlocked the doors.

A co-worker of mine also lives in town. She said that when the tsunami tower went off it sounded like it was right in her living room. Then emergency vehicles drove up and down the streets sounding alerts to evacuate. Finally, the City of Homer Public Works evacuated their heavy equipment across town to the high school parking lot, since they are located by Beluga Slough and at virtually sea level and would get the brunt of a tsunami. All that was quite noisy, so even if one would want to fall back asleep there was plenty of action to keep one awake!

Another co-worker of mine lives 4 or 5 blocks below the hospital. She said lots of folks were walking up the hill to the hospital, the moose on one side of the street and the people on the other. The birds were going nuts like it was morning, and of course the dogs were adding to the chaos.  Some folks just drove to the top of the ridge that Homer rests on, which is about 1000 feet high.

The tsunami was called off sometime around 3:30 or 4:00, so folks could go home. At that point the school district decided to have a 2-hour delay for Homer schools so folks could get some sleep. Many people had a hard time getting back to sleep after that. We did end up getting a 1.5 to 2 foot tsunami, which would be slightly noticeable from other waves coming in, primarily by it's longer wavelength.

That day, folks were just very tired, and also a bit wound up. As I was getting dinner ready that evening, a series of 4 quakes within a minute shook the house a bit and light fixtures were swaying. Apparently there were dozens of aftershocks. Damage has been minimal. I did find a cracked wall at work, and some folks had things fall off their shelves and break, but for the most part it was not destructive. My husband said it was less scary than the last one last year, which had hard jolts that shook things violently, and which created much more damage even though it was a smaller magnitude.

I'm always a little relieved when we get quakes. I'd rather have the pressure relieved than have it build up. I'm not sure if my logic is solid or that's just wishful thinking, but I'll take that hopefulness!