"weather" in Hawaiian?

[Chris Waigl]

On 6 Sep 2011, at 16:07, Laurence Horn wrote:

> On ABC, they claimed the research pointed to Hawaii and Alaska (presumably avalanches don't count),

Why would avalanches count as "destructive weather"? However, I can assure you that up here in Alaska, destructive weather is quite commonplace. I'm mostly familiar with the sub-Arctic tundra of the Interior (that is, the area bordered by the Brooks Range in the north and the Alaska Range in the south, and off the west coast -- roughly, around Fairbanks), with other areas enjoying different climatic conditions (Arctic, maritime rain forest...).

Over here, road damage due to frost is widespread (unsurprisingly, with temperature differences between summer maxima and winter minima of the order of 120°F/65°C being normal). The period when the ice melts (ObADS-L: called "breakup") brings spectacular effects -- I count this under "weather" as the degree to which habitation and livelihoods are endangered is determined by temperature curves and precipitation. In the 2009 breakup, the village of Eagle was spectacularly destroyed (http://www.bushalaskaexpeditions.com/eagleicejam.html). Flooding can also be a problem, with Fairbanks being protected by an impressive flood control project, which has prevented the re-occurrence of a catastrophic flood in the late 60s.

Now in terms of people affected, I'll well believe that Alaska ranges lower on the "unaffected by destructive weather" scale, simply by virtue of the entire state having fewer inhabitants than Austin, TX, half of which concentrated around Anchorage.

Chris Waigl
your correspondent from the 49th state since February 2011

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Chris Waigl -- http://chryss.eu -- http://eggcorns.lascribe.net
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