Forecast was for strong winds this evening and overnight, but as I came home after visiting Marge (over an hour after the advisory took effect) it was very calm, almost strangely so. It actually made me wonder if we were in the eye of the low pressure or something. When got home, I pulled up the Biorka Island radar and saw there was an impressive patch of heavy rain (yellows and reds, even) headed up the outer coast of south Baranof Island (see above). However, when I looked at the graphic that shows velocities, it was a big mass of pretty gray (see below). Green and red represent movement towards and away from the radar respectively, the brighter the color, the faster the movement. The gray basically means there is very little movement relative to the radar, so while the rain was falling hard, it was also falling straight down rather than sideways.
As the evening went on, it looked like some wind was coming in from the west – it’s hard for me to tell the direction of the wind, but it seems likely to be WSW or there about. I will probably not be awake when it makes it to town, but it will be interesting to check the overnight radar images in the morning to see what transpired. As it stands, I suspect the low center probably did come in over Sitka Sound and that’s why it was calm here.
In other news, the Marbled Godwit was still around today. If it sticks around through Saturday, it will tie the late date for the state.
I also heard about a baby squirrel at Totem Park. I agree with the reporter that it seems kind of late for that, but then I heard about another baby squirrel from about a month or so ago (which also seemed sort of late). Now I’m wondering if maybe squirrels will sometimes have young later in the year if there’s ample food (which perhaps there is with this year’s big cone crop).