Journal Entry

Jack’s weather report:

This morning it is cool and foggy, although not like the fog we had rolling in this past Friday, more on that soon. The morning sun made fogbows, as opposed to rainbows, as you looked to the west…..another twist in the weather of the far north.

Temp: 32 °F (0 °C)

Winds: light out of the north.

I wanted to describe the sudden weather changes that occurred this past Friday while I was out at the biocomplexity site taking my second round of measurements. I had the 4:00 p.m. to midnight shift since I had the webinar that morning. Hope you were able to tune in.

The weather of the day was sort of overcast, drizzly, cool…a regular day in Barrow during the summer. About 8:00 that evening I could see the end of the clouds as blue skies were clearly visible and approaching from the north. Here is a photo of the clouds giving way to a brilliant sun.

Clouds give way to brilliant sunlight looking back towards Barrow.

I was beginning me second run of two for the evening. We have to visit 4 plots on each boardwalk, 12 in all, and do two runs during an 8-hour period. Back to the story…I was just beginning the run as the sun broke and it was quite enjoyable to be out at the site. I was essentially alone at this time and enjoyed the solitude and the measurements were going well….life was good.

Measurements are logged into the LI-COR 6200 and we copy them down as a back-up.

About this time, in the same direction as I noticed the blue sky approaching, I began to notice a line of clouds…or was it???.....mmm…they look different than the clouds before. It was a fog rolling in off the Chukchi Sea. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves as I photographed the approaching fog.

Fog approaching off the Chukchi Sea

Closer view off approaching fog. BASC is visible on the horizon.

BASC just go swallowed by the fog

....it's getting closer

I'm fogged in and visibility is down to about 200 meters.

……and just like that the fog surrounded me and the solitude returned. I relished the moment as I did before.