The anomalously strong ridge of high pressure that helped to bring record warm temperatures to parts of the Pacific Northwest — which included an all-time high temperature of 103º F at Seattle WA — was also bringing unseasonably warm temperatures as far north as the Yukon Territory of Canada on 29 July – 30 July 2009. A GOES-11 IR image with surface reports (above) showed... Read More

An intense upper-level low developed over the Canadian Arctic Archipelago on 14 July 2009, and subsequently migrated southwestward over the Northwest Territories, Yukon, and northeastern Alaska by 16 July 2009. AWIPS images of the GOES-11 + GOES-12 water vapor channel composite (above) showed a well-defined signature of the intensifying upper... Read More

The 2009 wildfire season roared to life in Alaska on 02 July – 03 July 2009, with a number of very large and very intense fires breaking out across interior portions of the state. A ridge of high pressure was in place over the region, allowing Fairbanks to experience a high temperature above... Read More

Well, not really — but a very interesting cloud plume formed yesterday and streamed off the 20,318-ft (6194-m) summit of Denali (“Mt. McKinley”) in southern Alaska on 10 June 2009, which almost had the  appearance of a volcanic eruption plume. GOES-11 visible images (above) showed this thin cloud plume spreading... Read More