11 July 2017; Ketchikan, Alaska.

It rains on average 332 days of the year in Ketchikan. And today we had one of those 332 days. In 1949 it recorded its wettest year with 203 inches of rain, which for metric people translates into just over 5 meters. So you had a watertight fence around your garden, it would have turned into a 5 meter deep pool or drinking water basin.

Luckily today’s variation was not a downpour but a constant drizzle with different variations in the size of the droplets. Still it is not what most would think that a holiday should look like, especially as you seldom see rainy pictures in cruise brochures. But it does give another impression of The Great Land. Due to its size is varies enormously in weather patterns. Especially in the summer.  Then the inland can be baking hot while the South East and South West coastal areas, also called the panhandle, remain quite moist and often continue to be so in the winter as well.

What causes all this rain? The North Pacific Ocean In the same way as the North Atlantic Ocean delivers lots of rain to Ireland. Rain clouds form above an open ocean and are then carried towards land by the prevailing winds. Those prevailing winds keep a constant circulation going around the world, often boosted by the Jet Stream located on a higher level. As a result we have all these winds with specific names such as the Trade Winds. In the hurricane season that wind helps to bring the hurricanes towards the East side of the USA instead of down to South America.

For Ketchikan the bump to the right would be called Deear Mountain.

Here in Alaska we have the regular sea winds blowing which come in from the West. They carry all that rain with it in the air as vapor. When it hits land it get warmed up or cooled down depending on the surface temperature of the land. If it is very cold, you invariably get snow. Ketchikan has something else. Mountains. It is very close to the  open Ocean and the rain clouds can drift in unhindered from the Cape Decision area (see my blog of a few days ago) over relatively low land until it comes to the Ketchikan area.  Ketchikan is open to the west but sheltered to the East by a mountain range dominated by Deer Mountain. Thus if a rain cloud has drifted towards Ketchikan it will bump into this mountain range. It is pushed up along the slope into the higher air, where the temperature is a little bit lower and condensation starts. And we call that rain when it falls down on our head.

Because the sea air is relatively warm, the winters in Ketchikan are not as harsh as elsewhere in Alaska. Although it gets cold, the warmer rain balances things out a little bit. What can make the winter in Ketchikan very un-attractive, although its 9000 inhabitants do not seem to mind very much, is the wind that comes with the rain in the winter. These are the autumn and winter storms which can whistle in unrestricted from the Gulf of Alaska. Ketchikan has the phenomena called Horizontal Rain. It rains but the raging storm wind blows the wind horizontally along for a large distance before it finally hits the surface. I have seen it once when it started; my face got wet and the pavement stayed initially dry. A very strange experience.

Panoramic view of Ketchikan and Tongass Narrows from Deer Mountain. (Diagram above and this photo both courtesy of Wikipedia)

Those autumn storms are the reason that the Alaska cruise ship season ends somewhere around October first. Sometimes ships stay a little bit longer but that can be a gamble. I have experienced the most beautiful Indian Summers but also cruises where I had to cancel 2 out of the 3 ports because I did not dare to sail with the ship through Gastineau Channel (for Juneau) or Tongass Narrows (for Ketchikan) as there was a 50 to 60 knot wind gusting through both Fjords.

Today there was a little bit of a breeze from the South East which might have helped to keep the rain down to a drizzle but it was a real Ketchikan day none the less. The only person who was sort of happy of about it was the Captain as he had all his guests back on board on time. We need a prompt departure from here as Ketchikan to Juneau is a tight schedule and lots of fishing boats are expected on the way, as the fishing season has opened.

Tomorrow we are in Juneau: And here less rain is expected instead of 90% it is now down to 50%. Temperatures will remain low, in the low fifties or around 12oC.