Martin visits Nome

22-24 November 2002

The weather could be better, but otherwise I am impressed with Nome. There is a coffee shop. The coffee shop has an espresso machine. I have a tall, extra hot latte at my right hand. Who cares about the weather when there's good coffee available?.

It's Saturday afternoon and the latte is my way of rewarding myself after working outdoors this morning under gloomy, grey skies, and worse. I was putting in an ALISON ice and snow observatory with Todd Hindmann of the Anvil City Science Academy (ACSA), a charter school. Sharing the experience were Tucker Erickson (a student at the academy, who will receive extra credit for helping) and his mother, Vicky, and Jerry Steiger, whose daughter attends the academy. Jerry kindly brought his generator and chainsaw in addition to his willingness to help.

The ice was almost 30 cm thick and what had been snow, but was now closer to slush, was around 2 cm thick. The air temperature was around 0 degrees Celsius and the wind was blowing in a mixture of rain and snow. We were each pretty damp by the time we finished. I am damper than I should have been because the zipper on my wind pants failed along its entire length. I'm glad I wore my long johns too. (you probably didn't need me to share that with you, did you?)

The observatory is on one of many ponds among the tailings left behind by the gold dredges that enriched Nome many years ago. The pond doesn't have a name, yet, but it does have a science tradition, since it was used for a fish study not long ago. Consequently, we know it is quite deep and the ice will not freeze to the bottom. So, put your heads together ACSA students and name the pond.

I arrived in Nome yesterday, Friday, and met the entire student body of the Anvil City Science Academy. That was roughly fifty students from 5th through 8th grades. We talked about ALISON in general and about their observatory and measurements in particular. It was 90 minutes of exchange between me and the students, who asked many good questions of me and provided good answers to my questions. I was impressed with them and look forward to hearing about their progress maintaining the observatory.

My next field trip is to Mystic Lake to visit Fred McElroy and his wife Marilyn on 2-4 December. They are renovating a lodge located on the north side of the Alaska Range about midway between McGrath and Denali National Park. Fred is a retired soil microbiologist who contacted me last winter with questions about lake ice and agreed to operate an ice and snow observatory this winter and contribute to ALISON. More from Mystic Lake when I return.