Ice goes out in Nenana, signaling the start of Interior Alaska's summer
The ice has gone out on the Tanana River in Nenana, Nenana Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness said on Friday evening.Forness said the ice went out 8:41 p.m. Alaska Standard Time. If you were looking at your clock, it said 9:41 p.m. Out of tradition, the Nenana Ice Classic uses standard time instead of switching to daylight time with the rest of the state.
The jackpot for this year’s Nenana Ice Classic is $283,723....MORE
And:
Two Alaskans share $283,723 Ice Classic jackpot
In the history of the contest, 34 ice outs have occurred earlier, 58 later. SourceA pair of lifelong Alaskans — one from Juneau and one from Galena — were the lucky winners in this year’s Nenana Ice Classic.
Gail Gregory of Galena knows what she wants to spend part of her husband’s Ice Classic winnings on.
“We can get running water,” Gregory said by phone Saturday from the bush village on the bank of the Yukon River 300 miles west of Fairbanks. “I’d like to get up in the morning and have a shower.”...
...Ice Classic manager Cherrie Forness said the ice didn’t really go out but the wooden tripod that sits on the ice and is connected by a wire to a clock on shore tipped enough to tighten the wire and stop the clock.
“It tilted just enough backwards to pull the wires tight,” she said of the tripod.
The section of ice the tripod was sitting on moved about 100 feet downstream shortly after it tilted.
“The whole sheet of ice just moved down, it was really cool,” Forness said.
Record-warm temperatures in the mid 70s this week hastened the onset of what a week ago appeared would be a later-than-normal breakup, she said....MORE
Previously:
Big Global Warming/Cooling/Staying Pretty Much the Same Betting Opportunity
Nenana Ice Classic 2009: UPDATE
Update II: Nenana Ice Classic 2009
