Missing Helicopter

I'm getting a ton of traffic here from search engines with "alaska lifeflight helicopter" or such search terms. I'm sorry that I don't have any updates on the missing helicopter that left Cordova yesterday afternoon and hasn't reached Anchorage yet. Here is the link to the local Anchorage newspaper that has been covering the story.

Termination Dust

Much of South Central Alaska, and from what I hear, the interior as well, awoke the last few days to termination dust. For those new to Alaska or looking in from the outside, termination dust is the first dusting of snow on the tops of the mountains. In Anchorage it's most evident on the tops of the Chugach mountains. It not only is a heads up that fall is here, but a sad notification that it won't be long before that snow is everywhere. Compared to most of the state, Anchorage has pretty mild winters as far as temperature and snow fall, but it still gets darker and darker from here on out. There ought to be a Wikipedia article on termination dust, don't you think?

The Life Alaska News Feed

You may have noticed it in the sidebar, but I wanted to mention that weird, interesting, or otherwise newsworthy stories in or about Alaska will show up in this feed. It's powered by del.icio.us so if you have a story or have a del.icio.us account, you can send it this way.

Flight Paths

I don't have a hard stat, but at one point I remember reading that Alaska has more planes per capita than any other state. Alaska's per capita stats are always high, but something in my memory tells me there are as many planes as people...as crazy as that seems. I know I should come up with a hard stat, but my point is there are a lot of planes. Where I live in Anchorage, I happen to be in the flight path of Lake Hood (the busiest float plane airport in the world), Ted Stevens International, Providence's Life Flight helicopter, occasional Air Force personnel planes and tonight apparently an RC airplane. Quiet isn't too hard to achieve in Anchorage, but I don't know that there is a part of town that is not affected by flight paths. Aviation is a part of The Life Alaska more so for rural Alaska, but us city folk are definitely not immune to the effects.

Grayling Stairs, Russian River (Cooper Landing, AK)

It's Just Dry Lightning And You On My Mind

Thunder and lightning are results of warm and cold air mashing together. The Mat-Su Valley and the Kenai Peninsula were hit with lightning last night and as a result there are several forest fires. It’s not evident yet in Anchorage, although the air certainly seems eerily hazy. How many times have you been working and watched a colleague drop everything in order to leave to make sure the fires aren’t reaching their house? Rural life in Alaska is a whole different life. There will definitely be some observations at The Life Alaska about rural living, but forest fires are just the beginning.

(Title is a lyric from Bruce Springsteen’s “Dry Lightning” from The Ghost of Tom Joad)

Solstice Puts A Damper on the Nightlife

This time of year is one of the most epic times for Alaskan living. The solstice, as defined on Wikipedia is one of two times a year that one of the hemispheres is closest to the sun. What results is the longest day of the year. As a kid growing up in Portland, the concept never resonated that one day would be longer than any other; however in Alaska the effects are obvious. In Anchorage we technically don’t have 24 hours of daylight, but having stayed up all night on the solstice more than once, I can tell you that it really never gets truly dark at any point. We experience a long drawn out dusk, which at some point turns into a long drawn out dawn and then the sun is up again. I have a pessimistic friend who is quick to point out that although the Alaskan summer is officially underway at Solstice, we only start to lose daylight from here on out. You can’t think about the Summer Solstice without thinking about the Winter Solstice, but we won’t go there today.

Have a Solstice story? Send it in to submit@thelifealaska.com