Mr. Blutarski Moves In
Rarefied air has moved in and the Mr. Blutarski isotherm (i.e., 0.0ºF air) is hovering somewhere near 10,500 feet, as indicated by observations at the top of the Collins chair at Alta.
America's Rainiest City?
Ketchikan, Alaska is known for two things: salmon and rain. I know this well as I have been here several times visiting family. The combination of wind and rain often makes it feel like you are living in a car wash. Ketchikan, which is located on the inland passage in southeast Alaska, has fully embraced it's status at the Rain City . It proudly displays a "liquid sunshine gauge" on the boat dock showing just how wet it is. A closeup shows that they claim an average rainfall of 12.5 ft (150") per year. That's a lot of rain and, perhaps not surprisingly, Ketchikan is widely promoted as the rainiest city in America (e.g., destimationalaska.com ). Being a meteorologist, I began to wonder if this was really the case. There are the usual challenges in evaluating such a claim. What is meant by a city? What is the period of record? Is the data reliable? Etc... For the purposes of this post, we'll concentrate on clima...
Could you elaborate on potential Avi dangers over the next few days. My optimistic roommates believe the current snowpack of 35 inches will be strong and supportive of the up to 4 feet of heavy snow we are getting as well as the current top layer of low density snow.
ReplyDeleteI am worried about large slides with massive crowns to the ground and I know the new snow will put many people in the backcountry. Personally, even 4 feet will still be dangerous in some areas where exposed rock is now barely covered...bring on the storms!
For backcountry avalanche information see http://utahavalanchecenter.org/.
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