Fresh Powder!

We had a nice little snow (maybe 8 inches?), all day long Friday and most of Thursday night. The boys went out to play today (I guess they are getting use to the cold weather). It is now back down to 0F and suppose to be chilly for a few days....enjoy! No news to update on Mt. Redoubt; it hasn't erupted yet and the winds are now going away from Anchorage.

Earthquake and Volcano

We had a moderate earthquake (magnitude 6.1 initially, now called a 5.7) last Saturday. It happened at about 9am and was noticably quieter than the California earthquakes we've experienced, but it shook the doors on the hinges for about 15 seconds. That quake was followed up with warnings from the Alaska Volcano Observatory that an eruption of Mt. Redoubt was "likely within hours or days". The volcano quieted down some on Monday, but they still say it could erupt soon. It last erupted in 1990 and dropped about an inch of ash on Anchorage. There are quite a few active volcanos in Alaska, and three erupted on the Aleution chain this summer, but this would be the first time since 1992 (Mt. Spurr)that one of the few across the inlet from Anchorage erupted - those 3 or 4 across the inlet are the ones that can likely lay a significant amount of ash on Anchorage and the valley. The pics are of the earthquake location, the volcano locations and what Redoubt looked like when it last erupted. We have a webcam near the crater, but it hasn't been working lately. Scientists are trying to fix it before it erupts. Here is the link to the AVO site: http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php . If they can get the webcam fixed, we might get to see it erupt real-time (but I'm glad I'm not the one climbing up to fix it!). If anyone is ever interested in tracking any Alaskan earthquakes, here is our local site: http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recenteqs/index.html or for tsunamis, see our Warning Center right here in Palmer-Wasilla: http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/ .

Yeah, we have our fair share of natural disasters in Alaska - but realistically, you're far more likely to be eaten by a bear or trampled by a moose than die in an earthquake, tsunami or volcano here, so that makes us all feel better! One thing is certainly true about Alaska - it's never boring! And the emergency stockpile purchases just keep growing! I can now add respirators and enough plastic and duct tape to seal off nearly the entire house to the list.

January Thaw

We've had a January Thaw the last few days, with temps as high as +50F yesterday. Set a record yesterday - nearly twenty degrees warmer than the old record. The snow is gone, mostly...but the ice on some of the roads never fully melted. We had school yesterday, although Anchorage schools remained closed (first time ever that they closed 3 straight days for weather). They probably should have closed ours too becuase I came upon a school bus in the ditch near our subdivision on the way home - no one hurt, thankfully. Today was a beautiful day in the upper 30s so we headed out on a hike through the hayflats, making a complete circle and coming up the bluff by our house. The second and third pics above show us standing on the National Historic Iditarod Trail down on the flats with our house visible on the bluff in the background on the second pic. It was great to get out and see the beautiful land that we are blessed to live in. Alaska always seemed like this far away place...sometimes I forget that I am actually living there. The hayflats are filled with ice and it was interesting to hike on them when the ice is several feet thick above ground level. The boys did an awesome job on the hike, although I think Landon and Mommy are worn out. The eagles are building a second nest several lots down. With all the snow from our yard gone, we were amazed to see GREEN GRASS despite the fact that it was -30 two weeks ago! We know that the snow will move back in before long. The ice on the flats allowed us to hike along the nearby Iditarod National Historic Trail for the first time. The race takes place next month, but it doesn't run along this route anymore due mainly to reduced levels of snowfall here over the last decade. This year it will start in Willow, a town up the road a little bit. I am sure we will have more snow by then but we are going to enjoy the sunshine and green grass until it returns.

Freeze Damage

The builder came by today to work on the freeze damage to the house. The concrete pad by the basement door was lifted up about 2 inches by the hard freeze this winter and caused damage to the door frame. The entire frame has to be replaced. It was a good day for them to do work. The temps were in the low 40s and the ground is still frozen. We were home from school for

the second day due to a good 3 inches of solid ice on most of the secondary roads that made busing unsafe. It is currently in the low 30s with freezing rain and more wind. We will see what they will do tomorrow. Most of the snow has blown away or melted off our backyard. Our neighbors yard however, still has solid snow. It was nice to get outside for awhile and despite the wind it felt strangely warm. I guess it is over 70 degrees warmer than it was two weeks ago.

My good friend, Amber, tagged me to post a picture from the fourth folder on my computer so that is why there is a random photograph of the boys babysitter, Josie. That folder is filled with Josie's senior pics so naturally I now tag Antoinette (Josie's mom).

Wolf on Base

These pics are from a scout camera back in November. The friend that I went bear hunting with is also a trapper and has permission to trap for foxes on base (base is trying to reduce the number of foxes to limit the problems they can cause when they get on the runway). He set up some traps one afternoon around a gut pile from a moose that had been harvested by a hunter with a special permit the day before. The camera shows him, and then a day later shows a wolf that was feeding on the gut pile. This is the first picture I've seen of the wolves this winter. There is an Elmendorf Pack that keeps mostly to the base in the summer but ventures out on the flats in the winter, but we haven't seen them yet. They killed three dogs this summer - all of which were being walked, some on a leash, at the time. But no attacks on people this year. The pack is led by a large black wolf, and I wonder if the rest of the pack was just out of the field of view when this pic was taken since it only shows one, and they rarely travel alone. Today we had the day off, both of us. School was canceled and the base was shut down due to icy roads. It got up to 45 F today and the snow-packed roads started to melt causing a slippery mess that led to 66 accidents with injuries and 165 cars in the ditch. So we were glad we could just stay home and enjoy the day off. Only in Alaska will you cancel school/work because it got TOO WARM in the winter!! By the way, most people I work with can't remember the last time school around here was canceled. The only restrictions we've ever heard about bad weather is that the kids must go outside for recess unless the temp is below -10 F! So our strange weather winter continues.

60 degrees warmer

Our cold snap finally broke, and today it is 61 degrees warmer than it was two weeks ago (but it was still below freezing). Our high today was +30 F compared to the low two weeks ago of -31 F here in Wasilla. Out in Tok, a town on the Alaska-Canada border, where we drove through on our way here back in April, they hit -80 F! That's the average temperature of Mars - and that's the next planet out!! So we have some warmer weather to enjoy for a while - but the warm weather brings the snow back. The moose have also been out and about quite a bit lately. Several days in a row we saw five moose walking around down the bluff from the house. I think the bitter cold brought them down to the flats in large numbers, in search of warmer temps and better browsing. Pics attached of the moose (Jolene putting the big lens to good use) and Landon in his Wall-E costume that he made from a box.

Coldest Winter Since 1947

It's official; the McDowell family has done it again. Everytime we move it appears that some great weather phenomenom follows us, from two direct hit hurricanes in Pensacola, to ice storms in Meridian, record heat and rainfall in Kingsville, to more hurricanes in Virginia Beach and Pax. This time we have the coldest summer in 10 years (never got above 70F) followed by the coldest winter since 1947. We have already had 9 days that did not go above zero degrees (F) in a row. The coldest winter was 1917-18, the second coldest in 1947-48, and now 2008-9 is the third coldest on record here in Alaska - and it's only Jan 6th. After seeing the hurricanes follow us across the East coast, then being in an earthquake when we lived in Monterey, it certainly makes you wonder about all these volcanos and earthquake faults that surround us in Alaska. On second thought, if the worst we ever see here is just the coldest winter in 60+ years - that's not too bad! (By the way, the pumpkin in the picture is too frozen for even the moose to eat it....the moose might all be frozen too...it's another -25 F night, but a warm 67 F in the house, with plenty of hot chocolate being consumed)

Denali - From August

I needed a reality check and some color. We haven't seen the bare ground since early October. The negative temps are suppose to continue until later this week. Here are a few pictures from our trip to Denali this summer. The eagle and the glacier are from the Mat Su Valley.

A Bowl of Water at -30F

Just in case you have never seen this trick. Layne heated a bowl of water this morning when the thermometer read -30F and threw it in the air. The majority of the water crystalized instantly before any could hit the ground. Pretty cool. The sun was out today so we took the opportunity to drive around and soak up some rays (too cold to actually play outside).

Send me to Honey's!

It warmed up a little bit today (-14) so Layne headed outside to de-stress from watching the Texas Tech football game. Meanwhile the boys and I headed indoors to Bouncin Bears to do a little de-stressing of our own. We were not home so Layne took some shots of the sweat crystals that formed on his hair as he shoveled. He also saw five moose out on the flats. Landon got in the box and said "Can you send me to Honey and Gramps?"