Outburst

Just had a little trip up to my favorite city of Juneau, Alaska. So lovely. Here’s just one story from the trip. There is a Big Thing going on there right now which is essentially an impending flood that is going to happen any day now. It’s an “Outburst Flood” or GLOF (“glacial lake outburst flood”). The weather.gov page explains in one graphic: So there is the famous Mendenhall glacier. Mendenhall lake, formed by it’s melt, is like 30 minutes from downtown Juneau, so it’s quite accessible for even cruise ship visitors to go get a look. Suicide Basin fills up with water during the warm months from glacial melt, and the Mendenhall glacier acts as an ice wall between it and Mendenhall lake. But at some point, the basin gets so full, the water from it starts flowing underneath/through the glacier into Mendenhall lake. There is a river from Mendenhall lake out to the ocean. When Mendenhall lake starts rising from the basin runoff, it goes out that river, and that river rages for a good…