Sunrise Observations 2025-04-30 (publ. 2025-05-05)

Last Wednesday (2025-04-30) I was able to get out early to the dike road south of the airport runway.

5:10am

I observe a little light pink mixed into the clouds to the NW, N, and NE, up to about 5 or 7° above the horizon. The clouds are a mix of smudgy clouds and also flat, puffy clouds. The flat clouds have striations, the lines of which generally come from the east.

5:19am

To the NE, a pink spot just above the hills has become a brighter pink. The gentle blending of clouds to the NE and E, a mix of smudgy and small puffy clouds, along with the empty striation lines, make for a "painted" appearance.

5:24am

At the sunrise spot to the NE, some thick clouds there are glowing an intense white-orange.

5:30am

I drove down the dike road a little, where I can no longer see the hills, but I am surrounded by trees. The clouds around are pink on top and grey-purple on the bottom. A gentle pink and purple glow floats just above the treetops to the SE. The NE clouds are now bright white and light pink. The sky to the N is bright white toward the horizon, becoming dark toward my zenith,.

5:34am

Clouds to the NE are glowing a very bright orange, making a column going up just a few degrees, that has a vase-like shape.

5:36am

I hear a bird with a rapid trill — something like eight staccato notes lasting about one second. Another bird sings with a sliding note that alternately slides up and down.

5:40am

I observe the Tanana is partly broken up, with about 60% of it still covered in ice. A wide channel of water flows freely opposite of me, next to the southern bank. A few small channels of water are visible as well next to the northern bank.

5:43am

I hear the crashing, dunking sound of ice collapsing into the river. Small chunks of ice float down the river, here and there.

Two large white birds, with black beaks, fly east up the Tanana. I'm not well studied in birds yet, and wasn't sure if they were where swans or large geese. They were honking but not with the quite the same sound as the usual goose honk I am familiar with.

On either side of me, two birds sing to each with a sliding, meandering notes.

5:47am

The bright white-orange glow of sunrise is now distinctly above the hills, mainly circular in shape.

This work © 2025 by Christopher Howard is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.

CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed

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