Thursday, June 9, 2016

Snow?

Wednesday afternoon brought some clear weather to the north. There was still some storm clouds to the south but I couldn't resist taking the typical Barrow tourist photo. It's now sort of off the beaten path with the construction of the new Top of the World hotel. There is a Mexican take-out restaurant right next to this site which is why I was there. I took advantage of the clear weather to replace a network radio antenna on the roof of one of the residential huts. It was still windy so not warm sitting on the roof terminating outdoor rated cat-5 cable. But it went pretty quick but I ended up doing the other end as well. Whomever did it last time did a poor termination.

That morning, there was fresh snow on the ground as shown in the picture. Today, the truck was completely covered with snow but no picture. I was too busy sweeping snow off of the windows. By noon, the flurries were over and there is a hint of blue skies again.

Today's tasks were indoors. I worked with one of the network engineers in Fairbanks to turn on flow export from the new router they had me install in April. I had originally set up all of the software to summarize and classify the flows about six years ago so it is somewhat of a challenge trying to get it all figured out again. It has been running so rock solid that I had forgotten to check if it was still running. The software was running but it wasn't receiving any data from the router.

Only a few more days before returning to Fairbanks.

10 comments:

  1. Snow?... Is this unusual, or can Barrow receive snow any time of the year?

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    1. Maybe, but even the locals have expressed dismay at it snowing again. They want to see the tundra turn "not brown". They told me it turns grey-ish green and followed by a dark red. Lots of small flowers and berries.

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  2. Still getting snow? That just seems wrong for June, but I guess that far north.......

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    1. That was the light snow. Yesterday, the snow was starting to cover things up. But all of the fresh snow has melted again bringing the sloppy mud back. Today is only 27°F so it could come back...

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  3. Snow in June... sounds like Alberta to me ;-)
    They seem to keep you quite busy for someone supposed to be retired.

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    1. Alberta sounds good around now..

      If I'm going to be up here I may as well get things done. A couple of these tasks have been on my list for techs working up here for several years. And some need more technical background than would be reasonable to expect a tech to have.

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  4. We had a good time a coffee yesterday morning discussing what the temp was with wind chill. Friends, Fairbanks is warm with lots of green and lots of flowers. However, it has been known to have flurries any month. Not this year!
    Have you seen that grad student you talked to on the airplane? What does he think of Barrow now?
    Maybe on your next trip to Barrow in July there will be the green-gray tundra, and flowers. I'd like pics of those.
    See you on Sunday!

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    1. Yes, I've seen Tim several times over the week along with the other group from San Diego. One of them is Kyle which I thought was interesting. He's looking forward to an adventure. They are here for 2 1/2 months.

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  5. Snow! Occasionally when I lived up in Prince George we got snow here and there. We went from blistering hot here to very cool spring temps. I was actually pretty chilly today which required a few layers and a neck buff, it was windy and threatening to rain most of the day.

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    1. One of the local folks mentioned how depressing it was to see snow falling again. But today may make up for it. Clear, sunny and 43°F. It's a pretty nice day...

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