Surface maps
, 3 min, 584 words
Tags: alaska how-stuff-works kayak-adventures
Today was something of a hodgepodge. Our original schedule sent us on a day trip today, but the weather (25 knot winds and high seas) sadly made that impossible. Two of my favorite activities for the day were reading surface maps and experiencing the Seward community through my first First Friday.
Surface maps
Surface maps are a way of looking at weather in depth. They look something like this:
(That gigantic low-pressure system just north of the Alaskan Peninsula is the reason we couldn't paddle today.)
Sometimes, if the weather gods are in a particularly good mood (or if you're looking at ocean.weather.gov), surface maps get color coded, like this:
Point is, there is a lot of information crammed into these surface maps. It's important to understand that information if I'm to safely take clients into the field. In our "weather 101" training discussion, we talked extensively about high and low-pressure systems, cold and warm fronts, and wind speeds. It left us wondering, however, about some other symbols on the map. In particular, those pink horizontal bars on the right and the miscellaneous blue dots and symbols in northern Russia had me stumped.
So today I sat down to make sense of those specific symbols. It was tricky to look them up on their own, but in the end I found a great key for these surface maps. I highly recommend checking it out here – there's a ton of interesting information in there. In terms of the symbols I was interested in:
- Those horizontal pink lines represent fog. Two horizontal lines means "fog," three means "very heavy fog."
- Blue dots along the coastline represent the "ice edge," which is coastline where ice coverage is 10% or greater. In other words, don't plan on leaving from ports along those coasts!
- The little sideways 'D' with vertical lines through it signifies icing. With one vertical line, that's moderate icing, while two means some serious ice accumulation. Physically, what's happening is that winds are high enough (25+ knots) to spray saltwater above the surface of the ocean. In the right conditions, that saltwater will freeze onto anything in its way, including boats. That spells trouble, especially if (in the case of heavy icing) it's accumulating faster than 2 centimeters in an hour. Wow.
There's always more to learn when it comes to weather, but that at least answered a couple of my big questions!
First Fridays in Seward
Seward is an amazing little town. I already knew that from exploring and chatting with people who make this community great. But it was fantastic to experience Seward hospitality firsthand on my very first First Friday. First Fridays in Seward are a chance for local artists to show off their work, local businesses to attract customers, and local residents to hang out and chat in lovely shops. With my fellow guides, I explored a couple of fabulous local shops. Each was showing off some featured artists, and had cute refreshments for the crowds of locals. I have a hard time describing how welcoming and friendly the community is when it comes together – suffice to say that it was a lovely evening and I met several people I hope to continue to see around town.