'Squalls out on the (ocean), Big storms coming soon.'

Dark purple is storm warnings, light purple gale warnings, and behind those, two low pressure centers heading this way. FYI gale warnings mean winds 34-47 knots, storm warnings are 48-63 knots.  After that it's a hurricane.

There's a huge storm coming in from the west according to the Weather Service.  Here's the warning in our little area:

...STRONG WIND THROUGH THIS MORNING THROUGH THE KNIK RIVER VALLEY...

...STRONG WIND TUESDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE TUESDAY NIGHT THROUGH THE KNIK RIVER VALLEY...

The forecast even warns people with high sail areas on their vehicles, like RVs and tractor trailers to stay off the road Tuesday and Wednesday. 

The local media is calling this just a continuation of the heavy weather Alaska has experienced for most of the year, but it isn't really.  As the autumnal equinox approaches it has been historically stormy on the oceans around the state.

Seeing the first of it on the chart over the Bering Sea brought up a flood of memories, not of storms I have experienced, but of listening to the single sideband radio while those folks on boats experienced extreme weather out on that water.

There was a night of several calls while I was crossing the Gulf of Alaska in the early 90s with reports of outrageously high waves and boats being battered and trying for shelter.  Once there was a mayday and constant communication with potential Coast Guard rescuers before a nearby crab vessel retrieved all aboard the foundering boat.  Reports came across of waves breaking out all the wheelhouse windows,  swamping the work deck, filling the lazarette and once a simple cry for help.  And there were some that were serious but sounded actually funny.

One captain reporting to the Coast Guard said he was locked in the wheelhouse and the engineer had locked himself in the engine room while angry crew members were running around on deck with knives.

Another one touched the heart.  We were tied up at Namu, British Columbia, on a Thanksgiving night waiting out a storm and trying to cook a turkey.  Out on the ocean a tug captain talked with his son ashore and listened while the boy described everything they had eaten for dinner that day.  It  was warming, yet sad and spoke to the loneliness and sacrifice of the mariner.

But, it's most often about the storms.

Well, the wind is blowin' harder now

Fifty knots of there abouts,

There's white caps on the ocean.

And I'm watching for water spouts

It's time to close the shutters

It's time to go inside.

Lyrics from "Trying to reason with hurricane season" -- Jimmy Buffett

This one sounds like it will be more than the usual around here.  Those folks who have been watching the Matanuska River eat their land away and take their buildings may be in for a new onslaught.

Even beginning now it is time, too, to think of those souls on boats in the big ocean.

A story about another storm around the autumnal equinox