Some recent AK photo's (Anchorage, Kenai: resort, top, harbor)

[Barkingowl]

Is anything put down on the roads to melt snow or give additional traction?

[warptman]

Here in Bethel they use calcium chloride mixed with dirt and spread it on the highway.

[Barkingowl]

Originally Posted by warptman

Here in Bethel they use calcium chloride mixed with dirt and spread it on the highway.

When I first moved to Charlotte they put ashes & sand on the roads. People were wrecking all over the place.

[warptman]

Friend's planes in winter plumage...

[Barkingowl]

Do the planes now have skis instead of floats?

[warptman]

Yes, "float" means to float on water. They take the floats off and put them away for the summer and either put on a combination of wheels/skis or just straight skis like they have on them now.

[warptman]

Heres some shots of Fata Morgana, or also known as Morgan Lefay also known as a temperature inversion.

[Barkingowl]

So its a mirage?

[warptman]

Yes. Warm air moves in over the cold air and acts like a big mirror and bends the light or reflects it and it seems way bigger than they appear.

"Fata Morgana, also known as Morgan le Fay, was a fairy enchantress skilled in the art of changing shape. In one traditional story she was King Arthur's sister and learned many of her skills from Merlin the Magician.

A special type of complex mirage, one that sometimes gives the impression of a castle half in the air and half in the sea, is named after Fata Morgana. She was known to live in a marvelous castle under the sea. Sometimes the enchantress made this castle appear reflected up in the air, causing seamen who mistook it for a safe harbor to be lured to their deaths.

The fate morgana mirage is one that can occur only where there are alternating warm and cold layers of air near the ground or water surface. Instead of traveling straight through these layers, light is bent towards the colder, hence denser, air. The result can be a rather complicated light path and a strange image of a distant object. A fate morgana actually is a superposition of several images of one object. Typically one image is upright more or less above two inverted images that may be mingled together. The images may undergo rapid changes as the air layers move slightly up and down relative to the observer.

In Alaska the best chance of seeing the relatively rare fate morgana is in winter when temperature inversions develop in the larger valleys. When seeing a complex mountain image out across a valley or bay one can attempt to sort out in the mind the paths that the light rays must have taken. Perhaps it's best just to acknowledge that it is Morgan le Fay beckoning." T. Neil Davis, Alaska Science Forum

[rotorhead]

I've got a couple of those shots around somewhere, we used to see it over the Cook Inlet from Eagle River. This one was taken from out front porch there.