The town of Nome, Alaska experienced an unusually early spring this year, with snow melting quickly in April. The absence of permanent winter ice and shorefast ice caused safety concerns for travelers using snowmachines to travel between villages or to crabbing pots on the ice. The lack of ice caused the loss of many crab pots and human lives this winter. The photos in the post were taken in late April, but the ocean ice has been far off the coast all winter.

Observation: Although March presented a formidable last attempt at winter weather, April temps made spring come unusually early for Nome. What snow there was faded quickly as the the air heated up. It changed so quickly that we didn't even get a chance to break out the snowshoes for our waking trail between our parking spot and our house. The snow was just gone! I think that this is the first year we've only had shorefast ice. Generally the larger ice pans in the ocean push up against the shorefast ice and sometimes ebb and flow but this is the first time it's been absent more than present. This presented a safety problem for travelers snowmachining between villages or out to their crabbing pots on the ice. We lost many crab pots and some human lives this winter. The photos in this post are from late April but the ocean ice has been far off the coast in this way all winter long.