Natures Magical World

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Diamond Dust

Flashback Friday

Sun dogs and Diamond dust

    When the temperatures drop enough ice crystals form and together with some sun we get these beautiful sund dogs around the sun. If you are lucky enough, you can see part of this ring (the sund dog) right in front of you. This phenomenon is also called diamond dust, because obviously that is what it looks like. 

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Sun dog

Skiing

    These pictures makes me miss the snow and cold weather a lot. Being able to ski every day, in one way or another. I could choose between biking (as long as the temps were not too low since I never winterized my bike) or ski to school. The morning commute was always worse than the afternoon, not because of the cold, but because of the darkness and moose. Imagine skiing into a dark forest on narrow skitrails at 7 in the morning. Sure, a headlamp helps, but the forest is really dark at that hour. In Alaska you loose about 6 minutes of daylight leading up to equinox, however after that you start to gain several minutes per day. So, before you know it, the mornings are light and soon the summer arrives, well after like 4 months.. 

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Aurora Borealis

    Fairbanks is the main hot spot for Aurora in the whole world. I can say that the last year I saw aurora almost every day, to the point where I chose when I wanted to get up and out in the cold to take pictures depending on social media and live aurora cams. Now, of course, I really really miss having this opportunity, I mean even just going to pee in the middle of the night (to the outhouse) and look up and see this magical phenomenon going on. It's out of this world.

Aurora

Northern Lights

Magical Lights

    I have a deep connection with sunrises and sunsets. Nowadays I seldom get the opportunity to take as beautiful pictures as the one below, because I do not have that view while leaving work any more. 

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    What is your favorite thing about nature? Have you ever seen Diamond Dust?

We need to talk about Climate Change pt. 1

Climate Change

    I guess no one has missed the news about the fires yes FIRES as in multiple large fires raging in Canada right now. This is not that unusual, not even here in Alaska. Last year about 5 million acres burned, and a lot of times people do not realize how many fires we do have in Alaska every summer. Most fires burn in the middle of nowhere and don't affect us per see. But when these fires are coming closer to our towns we are bound to see a disaster.

    Jag antar att ingen har missat att det är flera bränder som just nu härjar i Kanada, den värsta i Fort MacMurray. Det är inte ovanligt med stora och många bränder, även här i Alaska. Förra året brann cirka 5 miljoner hektar, det är ungefär nästan lika stor yta som Norrbotten i Sverige. De flesta här i USA (och i andra länder också förstås) förstår inte hur många bränder vi har här i Alaska varje sommar. De flesta bränder brinner dock mitt ute i ingenstans, och påverkar således inte oss människor. Det är när dessa stora bränder kommer närmare bebyggelse och städer som katastrofen är ett faktum.

“People don’t fathom how big Alaska is. You can have a 300,000-acre fire, and nobody knows anything about it, because nothing’s been done about it, because of where it is,” says Tim Mowry, spokesman for the Alaska Division of Forestry.

Fire

    In the science community it's no news that the fires are getting larger, more frequent and also more severe. Projections into the future are showing that this will continue during the 21st century. Alaska is experiencing the greatest increase in air temperature compared to the lower 48. This past winter season we broke so many climate related records that I actually feel a bit worried, however, this might not mean that this will be the future, but it definitely gives you something to think about. Like Alberta Canada, our winter season was very mild and we also did not receive as much precipitation (snow) as we usually do. This spring here in Alaska has also been really warm, not as warm as in Fort MacMurray which experienced temperatures closer to 90℉ when the "normal" temperature usually lies around 55℉. The combination of dry spring, warm weather and the fire prone spruce forest makes for a perfect match, literally a match that will burn until there is nothing left to burn, or an intense rainstorm hits. At this point the fire fighters that are fighting the fire in Fort MacMurray and the surrounding area have said that they will not be able to stop this fire. 

    Det är inte direkt någon nyhet  bland forskar världen (inom ekologi) att bränderna blir större, mer frekventa och även mer intensiva. Prognoserna pekar alla åt samma håll, detta kommer fortsätta under detta århundrade. Alaska är ett område som är ett av det hårdast drabbade när det gäller temperatur ökningen jämfört med resterande USA. Den här vintersäsongen så har vi slagit rekord efter rekord, det är inte hundra procent säkert att detta kommer fortsätta in i framtiden men det får en som sagt att tänka över situationen och att i mitt fall bli lite orolig för vad framtiden har att ge. Precis som i Alberta, Kanada, så har denna vinter vara oerhört mild med lite snö. Våren har även varit väldigt varm, inte lika varm som i Fort MacMurray, där temperaturen har hållit sig runt 32℃, att jämföra mot den "normala" temperaturen runt 13℃. Kombination av en torr vår, varmt väder och den brand benägna granen har skapat ett inferno utan dess like. Just nu så brandexperterna talat om att denna brand kommer inte att kunna släckas utan en intensiv regnstorm. 

Fairbanks

    The other day I was thinking, this could be Fairbanks, but then I thought, neeh, we don't have that many spruce trees in fairbanks do we? Later that evening I drove by one of the lookouts from campus and stopped to see the view and quickly realized that what happened in Fort MacMurray could actually happen here. Below is an old picture from the fall I took a couple of years ago, but that is downtown Fairbanks.....and everything that is not orange is  black spruce (probably mixed in with a lot of white spruce to, which is less fire prone..)

    Häromdagen så tänkte jag "kan det här hända i Fairbanks?" men så släppte jag snabbt den tanken, jag tänkte, vi har väl inte så mycket gran i staden...eller? På vägen hem så åkte jag förbi utsiktsplatsen på universitetet. Jag stannade till och kollade ut över Fairbanks och insåg att samma inferno som pågår i Fort MacMurray skulle absolut kunna hända här också. Jag tog denna bild en höst för flera år sedan, men den visar ganska tydligt hur mycket av denna brand benägna granen vi faktiskt har i city kärnan.

    Next day US National Weather Service - Alaska posted this on their Facebook page:

    Nästa dag så publicerade USAs motsvarighet till SMHI detta meddelande på Facebook:

    How are the fires where you live? Do you have any and have you ever thought about preparedness for a potential fire disaster?

    Hur beter sig bränderna där du bor, har ni några alls? Har du tänkt på hur du kan förbereda dig inför en brandkatastrof?

Wintertime sadness?

What is the worst part about living here in the wintertime is a question I have gotten many times. After living here since 2009 I must say that winters are hard and brutal sometimes but not impossible. I can say though that lately I have felt less excited about the winter. This winter for instance I didn't get out skiing almost at all, compared to last winter when I skied to and from work almost every day! It didn't really get as cold this winter either, compared to last winter. Winters here can be cold, but so so beautiful. Snow covered spruce mixed with beautiful sunrises and sunsets. 

We also didn't receive as much snow as we did last winter. We went about 105 days between December and March without any new snow on the already thick snowpack. Last year on the other hand, we received plenty of snow throughout the season. This is probably also one of the reasons why I didn't feel like skiing at all this year. Now when I look at these pictures though from last year it makes me miss skiing, oh well, we can't always have it all.