Saturday 645am and it's 31F (-0.6C) with snow accumulating on Cleary Summit Mile 21 Steese Highway, northeast of Fairbanks (elevation 2270 feet/690 meters MSL). Early May snow is common at this elevation. @anisian @Climatologist49

River ice break-up is underway in northwest North America. So far no serious flooding. I’ve got the early results of this year’s break-up in the climate scale context in a new post in the Alaska and Arctic Climate newsletter. @Climatologist49

https://alaskaclimate.substack.com/p/spring-2025-river-break-early-results

Late April snowpack comparison for Alaska and vicinity: April 25, 2025 vs. same date last year. Large area in Interior Alaska and the central Yukon Territory with higher snow water equivalent remaining, while across the north and west mostly lower SWE than last year. As always, Southcentral Alaska SWE patterns quite complex. #akwx #Snow #Spring2025 @Climatologist49

Break-up the ice on the Yukon River at Dawson, YT has been recorded every spring since 1896, making it the longest unbroken set of break-up observations in northern North America. This year, the ice broke at 1056am MDT Wednesday April 30. This is about five days earlier than the past 50-year average and is tenth earliest break-up in 130 years of observations. Four of the ten earliest break-ups have occurred in the past decade. #ytwx #Spring2025 #ClimateChange @Climatologist49

Ice went out on the Yukon River at Dawson, YT on Wednesday. Webcam image from 419pm MDT looking west-northwest across the Yukon River courtesy Yukon River Ice Pool. #ytwx #Spring2025.

A pretty spring bluebird for Monday, have a good one!
Available here..https://tina-lecour.pixels.com/featured/bluebird-and-blossoms-tina-lecour.html

Fairbanks Airport temperature Sunday afternoon reached 60F for the first time this year. This is two days earlier than the average date of the "first 60F” over the past 50 years. #akwx #climate #Spring2025 @climatologist49.bsky.social

Fairbanks Airport temperature Sunday reached 60F for the first time this year. This is two days earlier than the average date of the "first 60F” over the past 50 years. #akwx #climate #Spring2025
@Climatologist49 @anisian @debmcqueen @mivox

Tanana River at Nenena: big open water but the tripod has only drifted a little was downstream. If it’s not official break-up it will be soon. #NenanaIceClassic #Spring2025 #akwx @Climatologist49

Difficult decisions in the gardening planning

It seems to be a juggle now, preparing for transferring some pods into the hydrophobic setup while still growing some of the winter greens to maturity. Light (and heat) are the main deciding factors, as the largest greens no longer need as much of either (nor nutrients, so tap water will be just fine) so they sit on a window ledge waiting to be eaten. Those you see in a clear plastic box on the green stool at the base of the garden setup.

I really need to harvest the big Bok Choy plants in the bottom, but they're not doing any harm where they are, so will use them as needed. And they're so pretty.

The growing broccolini seedlings are in their nursery sitting on top of the tray of the garden, to take advantage of the light, before they're ready to move. Should they go into the hydroponics garden as an intermediate step, (the tomatoes and peppers will definitely)? Or directly into pots to plant out? Decision deferred on that one for the moment.

The tomatoes are germinating and growing so they needed the light turned on for them (second photo) , while still requiring the heat mat. The peppers also on the heat mat don't need the light but do need the warmth. They are slower to germinate, no signs yet. I hope that light is enough to prevent leggy growth. Also the light will only be on for 13 or so hours a day, as it's not on a timer as is the garden.

So here we are. Spring is starting in Eastern Canada. And my garlic outside is about 6-8 inches high!

The tripod on the Tanana River at Nenana tipped over Saturday evening but Sunday morning it's still in place and clock is still running. The tripod needs to move 100 feet downriver in order to trip the clock. In the past 50 years the median break-up date is April 30. Image courtesy Nenana Ice Classic. #NenanaIceClassic #akwx #Spring2025 @Climatologist49

As #Norway Considers #DeepSeaMining, a Rich History of Ocean Conservation Decisions May Inform How the Country Acts

In the past, scientists, industry and government have worked together in surprising, tense and fruitful ways

by Christian Elliott, April 21, 2025

"At the #Arctic #MidOceanRidge off the Norwegian coast, molten rock rises from deep within the Earth between spreading tectonic plates. Black smoker vents sustain unique ecosystems in the dark. Endemic species of long, segmented bristle worms and tiny crustaceans graze on bacteria mats and flit among fields of chemosynthetic tube worms, growing thick as grass. Dense banks of sponges cling to the summits and slopes of underwater mountains. And among all this life, minerals build up slowly over millennia in the form of #sulfide deposits and #manganese crusts.

"Those minerals are the kind needed to fuel the global green energy transition—#copper, #zinc and #cobalt. In January 2024, Norway surprised the world with the announcement it planned to open its waters for exploratory deep-sea mining, the first nation to do so. If all went to plan, companies would be issued licenses to begin identifying mineral deposits as soon as #Spring2025. To some scientists who’d spent decades mapping and studying the geology and ecology of the Norwegian seabed and Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, the decision seemed premature—they still lacked critical data on the area targeted for mining. The government’s own Institute of Marine Research (IMR) accused it of extrapolating from a small area where data has already been collected to the much larger zone now targeted

“ 'Our advice has been we don’t have enough knowledge,' says Rebecca Ross, an #ecologist at IMR who works on Norway’s #Mareano deep-sea mapping initiative. She says the decision was based solely on the #geology of the area. Taking high-resolution scans of the seabed and sampling its geology is the first step when research ships enter a new area, but critical biological and ecological research is more difficult and tends to come later—which is the case on the ridge area targeted for mining. Ross says it’s certain that area contains vulnerable marine ecosystems that would be affected by the light and noise pollution and sediment plumes generated by mining. The IMR estimates closing the knowledge gap on the target area could take ten years.

"The same conflict, with a partial scientific understanding misinterpreted and used to justify resource extraction, is playing out in the #Pacific, where mining pilot projects are already underway in international waters. Years before, scientists funded by industry scouted the #seabed there, discovering both valuable minerals and new forms of life."

Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/as-norway-considers-deep-sea-mining-a-rich-history-of-ocean-conservation-decisions-may-inform-how-the-country-acts-180986412/?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Tanana River at Nenana: increasing melt water on top of the ice Thursday morning. Narrow open channel visible at the bottom has been there for some days. Iamge courtesy Nenana Ice Classic #NenanaIceClassic #Spring2025 #Alaska

Fairbanks snowpack has melted in NWS observations. The meltout date of April 23 is exactly the long term average. The 190 consecutive days with 1 inch or more of snow on the ground (since Oct 17) is also very close to average. #akwx #climate #Spring2025 @anisian @Climatologist49

So here's a brief taste of the amazing #ShortStories for #Spring2025 with Susanna Clarke, Bronia Flett, Jeremy Wikeley, PR Woods and Fríða Ísberg, translated by Larissa Kyzer.

Catch them all at https://fictionable.world

#books #reading #writing #fiction #translation #comics #blog #bookstodon @bookstodon