RIP Snowball 2009-2020
Starting off this post with sad news. Our dog Snowball had to be flown in to town due to being in severe distress and never got to come home. She developed a very serious medical condition and after consultation with the veterinarians in North Pole we had to make the best decision for her. Neither Lynn or I were allowed to fly in with her. Like most villages off the road system we are not allowed to enter or leave without prior permission from the city due to the risks associated with the pandemic, and this is only granted for specific emergencies. We miss her greatly but are grateful for the time we were able to spend with her.
On to better news, spring breakup
The south has tornado season, our two main concerns here as far as natural hazards are spring breakup and wildfire season. Normally the spring breakup season comes with some sense of anticipation, but after the 2013 flood there has always been a lot of nervousness. The heavy snowfall this year actually helped us because it insulates the river ice from the -40F cold so it doesn’t freeze as thick. I managed to get out and get some photographs before breakup. We had a fairly gradual warmup this year. Below freezing at night and in the 40’s during the day.
This picture was made looking upriver from the pilings a few days before breakup. As you can see there was a lot of dark spots on the ice, (always good), and what you can see of the anchor ice indicates it wasn’t too thick. I believe the local river observer, (that’s a real position here), measured the ice at about 80% of normal thickness for this time of year. I didn’t get by in time to get pictures of the initial breakup, it was fairly routine initially but we had a little scare when a large sheet jammed up at Bishop Rock just downriver. The level was rising quickly and there was a lot of worry about flooding for some time. Before 2013 it was assumed that some minor flooding was normal, but after the disaster we had, most of the town was on edge.
The picture above was taken about 24 hours after our big scare. As you can see this ice is mostly small chunks with a few pans, nothing very large. It would give the impression that the worst was over.
Another picture of some ice stranded on the bank at the pilings. As you can see it isn’t very thick.
Here is another shot of some of the ice running down the river. If you watch the ice run for a time you can see all sorts of interesting formations in the ice. Again, these are small pieces of ice that shouldn’t pose much of a threat unless you were foolish enough to try and put your boat in the water now.
So we thought that most of the ice was gone, then one day later this big run arrived. Bank to bank ice, but it is broken up a lot and the river was moving quickly. As long as it keeps moving we are fine.
The above clip shows the ice running here in Galena. Note that I opted not to include sound in this. Lots of wind noise in the area as well as noise from cars and four-wheelers running down the road. Still experimenting with shooting video from my Nikon.
What’s next?
Lynn and I will be heading down to the lower 48 next weekend so she can have knee replacement surgery. I’ll be trying to keep up my running in the heat of Oklahoma and Arkansas so we’ll see how that goes. We got through the appropriate approval process with our city so that we could leave and return. Assuming the rules are still in place I’ll be required to quarantine for 14 days after returning. I’ll try to keep posting while I’m down there. Stay safe!