Weather

Update | 1:34 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2016

Air travel was disrupted in Southeast Alaska Monday afternoon  after an Alaska Airlines jet was struck by lightning between Juneau and Sitka.

Flight 62 was delayed on the ground in Sitka more than five hours while a replacement aircraft was delivered.

In the meantime, Flight 66 was struck en route between Anchorage and Cordova.

Although aircraft strikes are relatively rare, lightning during a Southeast Alaska winter storm is common.

It takes two things to make thunderstorms in the Gulf of Alaska.

“We have cold air aloft and we still have a relatively warm sea surface temperature,” said Joel Curtis, the warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Juneau.

Curtis was a navigator on C-130’s in the Air Force and he spent a lot of time flying around storms then. But sometimes planes and lightning share the same airspace, making strikes a bit more likely.

“The aircraft on approach is on a fairly low level, and the charge difference between what’s going on in the cloud and on the ground is probably a little bit greater in that zone where the aircraft is,” he said.

That two Alaska Airlines jets were struck within a few hours of each other doesn’t seem like such a remarkable coincidence when you realize just how much lightning was happening from Sunday evening to Monday evening. A total of 396 strikes, mostly on the outer coast and over the Gulf, according to new detection equipment in use by the National Weather Service.

“It’s light years. I mean it’s so far ahead of what we used to have about two years ago, that we’re able to watch all this oceanic lightning that we never really had a handle on before,” Curtis said.

Curtis said the lightning detection system is proprietary to the manufacturer, but relies on triangulation to pinpoint lightning.

He saw strikes as far inland as Glacier Bay on Monday, but no farther, since the water toward the mainland side of Southeast Alaska is colder.

But is this unusual weather? Not at all.

“I have to tell you that this is the climatological time of year that we see the most lightning,” he said. “In fact it’s the time of year when a few of us get to experience thunder snow.”

Thunder snow. Curtis says the storms that produce the most lightning also produce a very specific kind of precipitation. There’s a Doppler radar on Biorka Island in Sitka Sound that “sees” rain, snow and everything in between.

“And when I see a type of ice pellet called graupel,” Curtis said.

Graupel is a tiny droplet of water that is rimed in ice. Not hail. Not really snow. And graupel is behind a lot of the lightning in Southeast Alaska.

“They’re not all that big. The water molecules are attaching themselves to this and, of course, water being bipolar with a couple of nice charges on it, really sets up a charge difference between it and the ground,” Curtis said. “You get enough of that, and it’s being thrown up and down, that’s what really gets a charge going. And the next thing you know you need a discharge.”

But of course none of this matters if you’re waiting in an airport.

Sitka librarian Kari Sagel boarded the replacement aircraft sent up from Seattle to continue flight 62. Sagel said she finally got on the plane about 5 hours behind schedule, and the misadventures continued.

“And so much time went by. We had to de-ice. We had to wait for a plane to land, and we finally made it to Ketchikan,” Sagel said. “When we made it to Ketchikan, however, they were trying for a quick turnaround. We left the gate, we taxied away. We taxied for an extremely long time. We seemed to do a 180. And soon we were back at the gate. They de-planed some passengers. A little boy refused to sit and be seat-belted.”

The boy and his father were left behind in Ketchikan.

I reached Sagel as she waited for a lift from cousins at the Cedar Rapids, Iowa, airport.

This was the first time in 23 years she’s gone home for Christmas. A journey she won’t soon repeat.

“I will be in Sitka next year for the holidays.”

Despite all the unexpected complications, Sagel reports that Alaska Airlines handled the circumstances Monday with great style.

Original story 7 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2016

JUNEAU — Two Alaska Airlines flights were struck by lightning Monday, causing them to be removed from service so they could be inspected for any damage.

The Juneau Empire reports the first strike occurred as a plane from Juneau prepared to land in Sitka.

The second strike occurred on a flight from Anchorage to Cordova. That flight typically continues from Cordova to Yakutat, Juneau and Seattle, but Alaska Airlines spokeswoman Ann Vininovich says the remaining legs were canceled so the plane could be inspected in Seattle.

While modern passenger jets are designed to deal with lightning strikes, Vininovich says Alaska Airlines policy requires aircraft struck by lightning to be removed from service for a maintenance review.

The National Weather Service issued a notice Monday advising pilots of lightning in the region.

— Associated Press

A 68-year old-man was rescued Tuesday after abandoning his homestead near the mouth of the Snake River west of Dillingham.

Mike Branson, originally of Texas, had hiked through the night and reached the East Creek Lodge at the boat launch, but was suffering from cold exposure when he got there.

A distress call went out early and was relayed to local authorities.

“At 4:58 in the morning, we got contacted by the Rescue Coordination Center, which is located at JBER (Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson), and they advised us that a personal locator beacon had been activated in the vicinity of Snake Lake,” Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Luis Nieves said Wednesday.

Troopers were able to determine that the beacon, which have unique identification numbers, belonged to Branson.

Friends of Branson expressed concern that his homestead site hadn’t been fully finished before the winter, and that he might be trying to walk back to Dillingham.

Troopers and volunteers searched by snowmachine at first light Tuesday morning.

“We went to the residence and couldn’t find him,” Nieves said. “Eventually we received a Skype call from the caretaker at the lodge that is located right by the boat ramp at Snake Lake, and were advised that Mr. Branson was currently at the lodge being provided temporary shelter.”

The lodge is several miles away and across the Snake River from Branson’s homestead site.

The low cloud ceiling prevented aircraft from flying to the lodge about noon Tuesday.

An emergency vehicle was able to drive down Snake Lake Road early afternoon to get to the lodge and reach Branson.

Branson was suffering from exposure and had an injury to his face from falling on the ice, Nieves said.

He had gotten cold and wet during the  long trek out through the night, and had not been able to signal for help until he triggered the beacon.

“Mr. Branson reported to us that he had been wandering around for 12 hours, and out of desperation after firing off several rounds from his firearm, running out of ammunition, activated his PLB,” Nieves said.

Branson was hospitalized for his injuries.

He’s been working on the homestead site on the south end of Snake Lake since summer 2012.

Search-and-rescue agencies recommend the use of personal locator beacons, which send a distress signal to a worldwide satellite system monitored by NOAA which can coordinate with local searchers.  

Anchorage residents have been waking up to fog most days recently. But do the cold temperatures that go along with it make it technically “ice fog”?

To answer that question, we spoke with Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist in Anchorage who closely tracks Alaska climate data and trends. Alaska’s Energy Desk is checking in with him regularly as part of the segment, Ask A Climatologist.

He told Energy Desk editor Annie Feidt you can’t have ice fog unless it’s at least 30 below zero.

Interview Transcript:

Brian: Even though it’s been in the single digits and even close to zero the last few days in Anchorage, it’s actually regular fog. It’s no different than a fog that would happen in July or August, it’s just colder outside. The fog particles themselves are actually little microscopic liquid water droplets.

Annie: How is that different than an ice fog?

Brian: With ice fog, instead of liquid water droplets, the fog particles are actually ice crystals. That doesn’t happen until you’re at a minimum of -30 degrees Fahrenheit. In rural areas you wouldn’t see it until it’s at least -40 or -45 Fahrenheit.

Annie: Is it something you can just see is different?

Brian: No. You can’t actually see what the fog is made out of. Even though you see fog and have reduced visibility, you’re not actually seeing the water droplets. It can condense out into mist or even ice crystals or snowflakes. But you can’t see the particles, so you wouldn’t know by looking whether it’s freezing fog or ice fog, you would need to look at the thermometer.

Annie: Does ice fog act differently in how it forms or how it dissipates?

Brian: It’s a very, very cold phenomenon. The nucleus of the fog particles is typically pollution- automobile exhaust or even smoke particles from fire places. When it gets cold enough, there becomes a point where it’s so cold that it’s almost impossible not to have ice fog. I think if it’s -60 or -70, no matter where you are, possibly with the exception of Antarctica, you’re going to get ice fog, whether the atmospheric conditions are conducive for fog or not, it’s just so cold that any little particle in the atmosphere is going to start collecting ice crystals on it.

Scientists released this year’s so-called Arctic Report Card on Tuesday, and it is a dismal one.

Researchers say the Arctic continues to warm up at rates they call “astonishing.” They presented their findings at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco.

“The Arctic as a whole is warming at least twice as fast as the rest of the planet,” says Jeremy Mathis, climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and one of the report card’s authors.

The cause of the warming is in part due to a feedback loop unique to the Arctic’s northern climate. Normally, the region stays cool because snow and ice reflect a lot of sunlight back into space. But warmer temperatures are melting that snow and ice. The melting snow exposes darker ground and water that absorb more of the sun’s heat. That makes the Arctic warm up even faster.

Mathis adds that the warming is getting progressively worse.

“The Arctic is getting persistently warmer; sea ice is continuing to show declines, particularly during the summer months,” he says. “The second big story for 2016 has been the winter temperatures.”

Mathis says it wasn’t so long ago that the temperature in Fairbanks, Alaska, where he lives, would drop to minus 40 F for weeks at a time in the winter.

“Now since about 2012 and 2013, it’s pretty rare for the temperature to even hit minus 40 in Fairbanks,” he says.

Warmer winters have created what polar scientist Marco Tedesco calls a new “precondition” for a higher rate of melting in the spring, when the sun first rises, ending the dark Arctic winter.

“You change the physics of the snowpack so that snow becomes more vulnerable to melting as soon as the sun comes up,” he says.

Tedesco, from the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, says polar regions are not as resilient to warming as other places. That’s because it takes only one or two degrees to change the Arctic from a frozen world to an unfrozen — and very different — one.

“In other places, going from 75 F to 80 F might not make such a great difference,” he says. “But if you cross the melting point, you are basically stepping into a completely new world.”

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

Shellfish is a staple in many homes throughout Southeast Alaska, but it also can be a hazard.

A new lab in Sitka tests regularly for shellfish toxins and now is teaching more than a dozen tribes in the region to do the same.

Global warming could increase the level of toxins, so tribes are working fast to take the mystery out of what’s blooming on their shores.

Jen Hamblen wears purple plastic gloves and a long black apron.

She’s shucking blue mussels, the kind you might find in a seafood restaurant.

“I love chowder,” said Hamblen, a fisheries biologist for the Sitka Tribe of Alaska. “I must say, my appetite for raw shellfish has decreased since I began this position.”

She’s scrapes the meat off the shells into a little white bowl.

When she has at least 100 grams worth of blue mussel meat, she empties the bowl into a blender.

She sets the timer for three minutes and turns the blender on high.

“The fancy word for that is ‘homogenization,’ but ‘shellfish smoothies’ is the other term we like to use,” Hamblen said, joking.

The tribe started blending up shellfish and testing them in the lab because of the growing concern over paralytic shellfish poisoning, or PSP.

Toxic algae blooms can contaminate shellfish, causing the sometimes fatal illness.

“People want to know, ‘Can we go out? Is it safe or is it not?’ Because it is an easy subsistence resource to harvest here,” she said. “There are shellfish everywhere.”

Michael Jamros directs the tribe’s research lab, which opened last year.

“When I showed up a year ago the lab was basically a bunch of boxes and I pretty much had to from there ordering the rest of supplies and getting the lab set up,” Jamros said.

It’s all set up and fully functioning now. That’s a good thing, since a study published last month reports that since 1997, the annual production of algae in the Arctic has risen by nearly 50 percent.

Chris Whitehead, the environmental program manager for the tribe, said warmer ocean temperatures make better breeding grounds for toxins.

“Just like your garden — if you water it and it’s warm and sunny out and you give it fertilizer — everything does really well,” Whitehead said. “It’s the same with these vegetative cells in the marine system.”

That’s why their weekly tests are so important, Whitehead said. And now more than a dozen other tribes in the region are also testing for toxins, including communities like Wrangell, Ketchikan, Juneau, Yakutat and Hoonah, Whitehead said.

“It’s a huge deal here,” said Ian Johnson, the environmental coordinator for the Hoonah Indian Association. “People are out digging all the time.”

“If I was just to guess, I would say over 50 percent of the community consumed clams, probably more. It might be 70 or 80 percent,” Johnson said.

Three people died in 2010 from paralytic shellfish poisoning, including one from Hoonah, and others have gotten sick since.

That’s why Johnson said people are eager for his weekly results, which he started releasing in October.

He soon ran into a problem.

People have different names for the same clams, like the Pacific littleneck clams — some people call them steamer clams.

Others, Johnson said, just differentiate between edible and inedible clams.

So he published an online survey about shellfish names.

“I was just trying to tap into this local base of knowledge and try to understand what people call these different species of clams so I can communicate the results better with them,” Johnson said.

Johnson released results from the survey online and continues testing the water for toxins each week.

If levels are unsafe, Johnson can send in shellfish samples to get blended up and tested in Sitka.

The batch of mussels in the blender right now is from Petersburg, a community 90 miles east of Sitka.

They were flown in just this morning.

After three minutes, the mixture is then run through a series of tests to determine if the mussels in Petersburg are safe to harvest.

Shellfish samples are flown in from other tribes almost every week, which helps Hamblen iron out the kinks in the lab.

Outside of the lab is a different story.

“A problem we encountered today is that there are frozen mussels on the beaches right now,” Hamblen said. “So, we’ll have to look at how to do sampling in Southeast Alaska when we have cold snaps like the one we’re experiencing now.”

It’s cold in Juneau. Earlier this month, the city saw one its heaviest snowfalls in at least a couple of years and, according to the National Weather Service, temperatures ranged between the teens and the mid-20s.

Karli Phillips was sleeping outside.

“Oh my gosh, so that storm, we were actually sleeping way under a dock and it just got drenched,” Phillips said. “This is like 3, 4 o’clock in the morning. We’re soaking wet, shivering and everything (was) just gushing water.”

Phillips is homeless and she regularly comes to the Glory Hole, one of Juneau’s few homeless shelters, for food and to get warm. She said that night she didn’t even go to sleep.

“So, I ended up just shivering in a doorway under some sheets I found,” she said. “I feel bad because I think I took them from somebody but, I didn’t sleep that night because I was afraid I would die.”

Winter months are an especially dangerous time for Juneau’s homeless population.

Rose Lawhorne said if you’re sleeping outside on a night like Phillips just described, dying isn’t far-fetched.

“Weather and temperatures down around zero or in the teens like we’ve had them, or with lots of snow, or wind … even damp clothes really contributes to life-threatening hypothermia,” Lawhorne explained.

She is a nurse and supervisor in the Emergency Department at Bartlett Regional Hospital.

She said during winter, homeless people can get hit hard.

“More affected, colder, more illness during the winter months,” Lawhorne said.  “We’ll start seeing them multiple times in a day, hungry and cold just looking for a way to get out – out of the elements.”

Lawhorne doesn’t know how many people come into the ER for exposure because those cases aren’t always captured in the hospital’s records.

“But what I can tell you is we get many patients every day who are brought to us by either Rainforest Recovery,” she said. “They walk in themselves, they’re brought by friends or family who are concerned, or JPD brings them to us and that is multiple times per day,”

Lawhorne said the range in conditions is huge. Some people are just cold and hungry and some are literally freezing to death.

At the Glory Hole, Executive Director Mariya Lovishchuk said the shelter has 40 beds for overnighters and during the winter they’re usually over capacity.

“We don’t turn anybody away for the lack of beds,” she said. “So last night we had 46 people sleeping here, so if we don’t have beds we put people on the floor.”

Lovishchuk said they give breathalyzer tests every night so people who have a blood alcohol level over 0.1 aren’t allowed in that night. People can also be suspended for longer periods.

“When people commit violent offenses or exhibit behavior that is really frightening toward other patrons or staff, they do get suspended from here,” Lovishchuk said. “I think we have two or three people who cannot get any services here.”

She said the Glory Hole is the only short-term shelter that takes men, women and children in Juneau, so unless suspended people and people who choose not to sleep in the dorms have somewhere else to go, they’ll end up outside. Phillips chooses not to sleep in the shelter.

“I actually haven’t gotten sick from sleeping outside. I’ve gotten sick from sleeping in here,” Phillips said.

She claimed the dorms’ air quality is poor and they get overcrowded.

“People don’t regularly bathe or wash themselves,” she said.

Another person said they didn’t sleep in the shelter because they kept getting into fights and being outside was easier even though it’s clearly dangerous. Phillips and others said when they’re outside, they have to wear a lot of layers and sleep under multiple blankets, sleeping bags and comforters – anything to stay warm.

Recently there was a rumor that a homeless man died sleeping on the street. An officer in the Juneau Police Department has said it’s just a rumor. Lovishchuk said she spent three hours trying to confirm it and now also thinks it’s just a rumor, but she said it definitely could happen.