Alaska heat wave!

[Rando]

Alaska heat wave!70218

[Bob Denman]

WOW! That's some range of temperatures!
Do you know when those shots were taken?

[ARtraveler]

Bob: May 15th and May 16th. :joke:

Here's an article from Reuters about what is going on.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - With a heat wave gripping Alaska, strange things have been happening under the midnight sun.
Anchorage residents, who a month ago shivered through an unseasonably cold spring and a surprise May snowstorm, have donned swimsuits and depleted stores of fans to ward off record heat in the state's largest city.
Temperatures have run as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, with daytime highs in Anchorage climbing into the 80s in recent days, and the sudden onset of atypical warmth has been blamed for unleashing wildfires and flooding alike.
Moose have been spotted near lawn sprinklers around Anchorage and at least one invaded someone's kiddie pool. Pet reptiles, normally confined to heated indoor spaces because of Alaska's cold outdoors, are making rare public appearances.
Park managers at Goose Lake, one of Anchorage's few outdoor swimming spots, had to eject a pet iguana named "Godzilla," along with some pet snakes and a turtle that patrons brought to the crowded sandy shoreline, said Doreen Hernandez, the city aquatic superintendent who has been working at the site.
Pets are not allowed at Goose Lake for health reasons, although she conceded that the rule is usually applied to dogs.
"We don't have a sign that says `No Snakes,'" she said.
Heat records have been broken around the state, with an all-time record high of 96 degrees reached on Tuesday in Talkeetna, the tiny town famous as the jumping-off site for Mount McKinley expeditions. The previous record high there was 91 degrees.
SIZZLING SOLSTICE
The heat spell has come at the peak of Alaska's summer, just before the solstice, a time of nearly round-the-clock daylight as the sun barely grazes the horizon overnight.
In Valdez, operators of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline marine terminal halted oil-tanker loading for 4 1/2 hours late Monday night and early Tuesday morning as a precaution after temperatures at the terminal hit 92 degrees.
"Our systems aren't used to operating in that heat," said Katie Pesznecker, a spokeswoman for operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.
Meteorologists blame the anomaly on rapid shift in atmospheric wind patterns. The system that brought cold air from the north during the spring changed suddenly, sending in hot air from the south and southeast.
The rapid heat-up caused considerable flooding of mountain streams, said Tom Pepe, an Anchorage-based meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
"You get big pieces of ice that jam up small parts of rivers,"
Flooding along the Yukon River late last month caused severe damage in several Native Alaskan villages, most notably the Athabascan community of Galena, where nearly all residents were evacuated by aircraft.
Property damage along the river was estimated at $10 million, said Tony Luiken, a state emergency management spokesman. The governor has declared a disaster.
The heat wave also has stoked numerous wildfires, many ignited by dry-lightning strikes fueled by ample dry brush.
A lightning-sparked wildfire straddling the Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge and Wrangell-St. Elias National Park tripled in size in one day, and was last measured at more than 25,000 acres."

We have been enjoying the best summer so far since I moved here in 2001. After our late May snowstorm the weather has warmed up. We have had over three weeks of continuous sunny weather with temps in the plus 70's in our area. We even had three days of 80's this week. One day breaking the all time record. They hit 101 in Talkeetna (75 miles or so North) another record. In past years, we have been lucky to have 70 degrees five times per summer.

I am not going to complain, just enjoying some of the best :spyder2: rydeing weather we have ever had. Hope the trend continues the rest of the season. :thumbup:

[Bob Denman]

Soooo.... Bikini weather in Anchorage; Mid-May... :shocked:
That has just GOT to be a sign of some sort!!! :yikes::yikes::yikes:

[bruiser]

Showed folks at the beach on the national news today. Bet that water is still fairly cold though.

Heat like that is just one big incubator for mosquitoes. You have some huge one's up there.

70263

[ARtraveler]

Showed folks at the beach on the national news today. Bet that water is still fairly cold though.

Heat like that is just one big incubator for mosquitoes. You have some huge one's up there.

70263


I am noticing more mosquitos than normal. :thumbup:

[Bob Denman]

I met a guy in Keene Valley, NY once. He was selling "Ben's 100"; the stuff that's 100 percent DEET. the stuff is magical in it's ability to discourage the really nasty biting bugs. :shocked:
Now; anything more than 37 percent DEET isn't legal for sale up here...
...So as I was picking up five bottles, I asked the guy if he knew about the law.
His response?
"I Lived in Alaska for ten years, and the flying :cus: down here are much worse!
I bought SEVEN bottles that day...
And we measure ours, by the distance between their eyes...
A three incher won't win many battles with his brothers, but they do like to pick on the Canadian Jays! :yikes:

[ARtraveler]

I met a guy in Keene Valley, NY once. He was selling "Ben's 100"; the stuff that's 100 percent DEET. the stuff is magical in it's ability to discourage the really nasty biting bugs. :shocked:
Now; anything more than 37 percent DEET isn't legal for sale up here...
...So as I was picking up five bottles, I asked the guy if he knew about the law.
His response?
"I Lived in Alaska for ten years, and the flying :cus: down here are much worse!
I bought SEVEN bottles that day...
And we measure ours, by the distance between their eyes...
A three incher won't win many battles with his brothers, but they do like to pick on the Canadian Jays! :yikes:

I have a couple cans of Deepwoods Off handy--but--believe it or not--I have not felt the need to use it yet. Time will tell. :roflblack:

[JkRbbt]

Spent 5 years in Anchorage. Got into the 80's just a couple of times and each time you couldn't buy a fan at any store. They sold out immediately! Heat wave, doncha know! :) When I left AK, I spent the first couple of months in TX. Didn't realize it until I got there. I didn't have a short sleeve shirt to my name! As far as the bikinis? I went thru the bra burning era in Alaska. I think the AK gals burned their bras, too, but it was so hard to tell under the PARKAS!! :gaah:

[bruiser]

Spent three years in England. Second summer there it got in to the mid to high 80s several times. The Brits were falling out all over the place.

[Bob Denman]

Deepwoods Off? :shocked: They LOVE that :cus:! We did find that a combination of that, and Avon's-Skin So-Soft would keep the mild-mannered ones away for about 20 minutes...
Bens 100 was always good for a couple of hours; and it'd keep them ALL at arm's length! :2thumbs:

[spydaman60]

Deepwoods Off? :shocked: They LOVE that :cus:! We did find that a combination of that, and Avon's-Skin So-Soft would keep the mild-mannered ones away for about 20 minutes...
Bens 100 was always good for a couple of hours; and it'd keep them ALL at arm's length! :2thumbs:100% deet is the way and the only way to go! them :cus: ny state mosquitos drink the other stuff!

[Bob Denman]

...And we've got the scars to prove it! :thumbup:
What idiot thought up the 37% limitation thing? :gaah:

[Firefly]

We have only just begun to see the changes to our climate folks..... gonna be more strange things happening in the future for sure.....

[Bob Denman]

So...
would you rather live in the ascendency of a civilization, or in it's decline? :shocked:

[Firefly]

So...
would you rather live in the ascendency of a civilization, or in it's decline? :shocked:

Well, we really have no choice in the matter now do we?

We've over-taxed our planet and her resources... and she's biting back now. Our Earth is sick from a terrible infection..... an infection of too many humans.. and too many humans doing stupid things... creating waste... toxic fumes and pollution, etc.

She will strike back with a vengeance......perhaps a good ol' fashioned plague to stave off this infection.....:dontknow:

[Bob Denman]

about fifteen years ago; some "Think Tank" down in Virginia determined that the actual carrying capacity of this Planet is only about Two-Billion people...
So what do you think is going to happen? :dontknow:

[Chupaca]

The gravitational pull will stop...till the load is lessened and the start back up...like the sm5 down shifting..!! :roflblack:

[ARtraveler]

I decided not to mention the global warming thing--but I think you folks have it covered. The weather is just to strange everywhere now that not much makes sense.

Tornadoes out in Washington and Oregon--that's new. I keep thinking they are going to appear here in AK before long. We sure have the hot/cold fronts for them to happen. There is always a large disparity in temperature from one part of the state to another.

:bbq::bbq:

[Bob Denman]

There is always a large disparity in temperature from one part of the state to another.


That's not too surprising when you consider the size of Alaska; it's big enough to make a Texan blush! :D