Pale Green Waters Spell Danger

Observation by Carol Oliver:

With the wind storm the water came up. I didn't take a picture of the lakes yet, but that's normally one of the places where its most obvious that the water is high everywhere, and lets people know that its not safe to travel. When the green water is here, its also dangerous to travel straight across the Lagoon to White Mountain. In the past we took the land route, cross on Kitchavik river and on up over land to White Mountain. I think having alternative modes of transportation is a must or should be on our wish lists; the basketball team was stormed in here due to weather and left this morning; the airport was shut down due to winds and icy conditions. Low ceiling this am, but temps good to hopefully prevent icing on aircraft. Our trip home on Friday, was late and long and just extreme, with icing and low visibility, but so happy to be home, in time to watch our Grandson's basketball game, they won both games by one point!!!

Rick Thoman, Climate Scientist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, writes:

A series of moderate strength storms tracked from the central Aleutians to the Bering Strait January 25-28. This brought a sustained period of south to southeast winds to the Southern Seward Peninsula coast, with the highest reported winds at the Golovin Airport of 53 mph. The ocean water level at Nome reached about 3 feet above the high tide level on the morning of January 27. Below is the NWS Ocean Prediction Center's Surface Weather Map valid about the time of highest water at Nome.

Comments from LEO Editors:

This post has been forwarded to the Kawerak Environmental Program