«Weather Warnings and Advisories Around Alaska»

Rain, wind... It's what the weather has been around here yesterday and today. Last night had some gusts that shook the house a bit. We had a wind advisory for yesterday.

So, can you guess what I did yesterday in the rain and wind? I suited up in rain gear and rode my bike about 30 miles. I rode to the end of the road South of town, out to the Beaver Falls Power House. That's about 15 miles one-way from my mom's place. It took me about 3 hours round-trip. I have now officially rode my bike from one end of the road to the other on this island. Just not all at once. There were a couple of times a gust of wind hit me and nearly stopped me dead in my tracks.

Out of curiosity, I checked to see what other warnings and advisories were around the state. Turns out there were quite a few. Most of the state is rainy and windy all along the coastline; from here all the way up and around to the Arctic Ocean. There were many small craft (boat) advisories, although it looks like we were the only area with a land wind advisory. There were a few flood advisories around and to the East of Fairbanks. Oh, and an ashfall advisory in the area of Dutch Harbor and Unalaska (Unalaska, Alaska has got to be one of the more unusual city names).

The ashfall advisory is because the Okmok volcano has been erupting since July 12th. When it first erupted it sent a plume of ash 50,000 feet into the air. By July 17th the sulfur dioxide gas from the initial eruption made it to Montana. It's continuing to erupt, sending ash up to 30,000 feet and there has been frequent seismic activity in the area. You never hear of all the volcanoes and earthquakes (at least 46 earthquakes yesterday, largest being 5.04) in Alaska because they usually don't occur near a populated area.