We’ve been waiting for it to start, and now it has: we’ve begun the roller coaster ride of winter in Southeast Alaska.
I truly, deeply, passionately love a White Christmas. As a kid, I used to fret about it a lot, but then I realized something that has helped me be philosophical about it: in our region, snow is primarily a transitional weather condition.
Have you ever read about what, exactly, has to happen to make snow? It’s complicated! I won’t go into it (because, frankly, I can’t quote the process from memory) but let’s just say that it leaves me wondering that there’s so much snow in the world!
In most of Southeast Alaska, snow falls in the transition between warm and cold air masses. If we’re lucky, it’ll fall as warm gives way to cold, as that means it’ll stay around awhile. More often, it comes at the end of a cold snap, and quickly turns to rain. Continue reading