Record Yukon River Break Up and Ice Jam

From the bridge, notice the shear edge where the ice was flowing down river and is now an ice jam.
The beginning of break up on the Yukon River at the Yukon River Bridge. The Yukon River starts in Canada and runs the entire width of Alaska and feeds into the Bering Sea. This year the the record levels of the Yukon and flooding up river in villages prompted us to drive to the only bridge on the Yukon, all other camps you have to fly to. In this picture the river has just began to break up and we are giddy over the inches the river has raised.....little did we know over the next few hours the river would rise 15 feet and completely ice jam the 3/4 mile wide Yukon nearly taking our camping spot down river. Notice the three levels on the pillars spaced at 10ft each by the next morning, barely one is showing.

Pella was only a little interested in the River break up and some time at this culvert.


Ed and I setting up the tents at our campsite.

Waiting for break up.

From the campsite looking down the embankment at the dock that would be completely covered in ice over the next few hours.

The ice beginning to come up the bank towards the fire.
The view from the tent around midnight, notice the trees blocking the view. The ice rose and took down all the trees.
The jumbled ice less than a few inches from the fire! Now we have a clear view and no trees.



I took a lot of video and tried to splice it together to get the picture of the enormity of this break up, but it is hard tell completely from the video how fast the river rose....except for the excitement in our voices. Ed also took video and used his official National Weather Service hydrologist voice. It is a much better video and he will post it soon on his blog. www.edplumb.blogspot.com.