Those of you that read this blog regularly may have noticed that I didn’t write anything for almost 2 weeks. That’s because I was on a cruise to Alaska. Today I was going to tell you all about it.
The trip is something that I have wanted to do for a long time. My wife agreed to go for my birthday…it was one of those birthday’s with a big round number. Anyone that knows us knows that we typically choose tropical locations for our vacation destinations. So why Alaska? “Because I want to see glaciers while I still can” was my response. Many laughed. Some probably thought I was joking about getting too old to travel there. Others may have thought it was a humorous comment about climate change. In reality, I meant it both ways but I wasn’t trying to be funny.
In this picture I’m standing on the edge of Lake Mendenhall near Juneau, Alaska. With my right hand I’m pointing at the edge of Mendenhall Glacier (the “terminus” as its called). My left hand is pointing at a waterfall…that was the terminus of the glacier in the early 1990s. That’s almost a mile away. As recently as last year you could hike to the edge of the glacier in a reasonable amount of time. Now the best way to get there is to paddle across the lake created by the melting glacier in a canoe…that’s a 2 mile paddle one way…not so easy for this “old man.” Ha! According to our guide the glacier is retreating roughly 100 meters (~330 feet) a year. That means the trip there will be a lot longer and lot harder for my next big birthday. I’ve studied and read about glacier retreat quite a bit, but I can tell you there is a big difference between knowing something and feeling it.
Anyway, I was going to tell you all about the trip, share some amazing pictures, and share some of the knowledge I gained from the guides on the trip (the good news and the bad). But, the multiple tragedies out of Orlando this weekend are making it difficult for me to concentrate on my job today. I’m not from Orlando originally, but I spent 10 years of my career there. Plus, the breaking news from Orlando this morning meant I didn’t even have a chance to share the 7 day forecast on-air. So, I will stick to the basics…
A cold front will move through the area on Sunday bringing a mixture of clouds and sun. Its possible you might notice a sprinkle of rain out of some of those clouds, but no measurable rain is expected. The bigger story will be the gusty winds with the front. Wind gusts will frequently reach 35 mph in the Boston Area with 45 mph gusts possible in the higher elevations Sunday afternoon. The cold front will also bring some cooler, drier air. So Sunday will be one of the rare days where the afternoon temperatures will be cooler than the morning temperatures. It also means that the muggy, humid air you may have noticed Sunday morning will disappear by Sunday afternoon and the humidity stays away all week!!
Some of the cooler suburbs will drop as far as the upper 40s by Sunday night. Not much changes for Monday. Skies will once again be a mixture of clouds and sun and a few sprinkles can’t be ruled out. Winds won’t be quite as strong as Sunday, but Monday will still be breezy with gusts to 30 mph possible.
The rest of the week looks awesome! Daytime temperatures will be near or slightly above normal, but humidity levels will be fairly low for June. So, expect comfortably warm days and comfortably cool days with little to no chance of rain into next weekend. That’s probably the best news of the day.
If you really need a break from the tragic news and just want to see some pretty pictures from Alaska, I’ve posted them here on my Facebook page.