Monthly Kachemak Bay report, February 2026
Summary
Compared to last January, air temperatures in the first half of February 2026 were warmer again. Most of Kachemak Bay waters remained colder than normal (by up to one standard deviation). In line with sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Alaska, the water column in lower Cook Inlet was warmer than normal, approaching one standard deviation. Salinity patterns mirrored this dichotomy with saltier than normal waters in lower Cook Inlet and fresher than normal waters in the inner bay. Surface waters off the Homer Spit, originating from the northern parts of the inner bay, were unusually turbid. A complete set of up-to-date graphs can be found on this Google Drive: section plots and time sections.
Conditions
After an unusually cold start of the year, air temperatures in February were above the seasonal average. Much of Homer remained covered with snow/ice, however, snow-water equivalent at the McNeil Canyon snotel site was low (10th percentile). The intertidal of Mud Bay was covered in big blocks of ice, but Homer Harbor was ice-free. Near the head of the bay, off Bear Cove, small chunks of sea-ice, less than 2 m in size, could be found. Hans, Kris, and Martin conducted the KBL monthly survey on 12 (extended AlongBay transect), and 17 February (across-bay transects T9 and T4). Sea conditions on 12 February were moderate in lower Cook Inlet and glassy calm in the inner bay.
Physical oceanography
Temperature
Water temperatures during this survey ranged from a minimum of 1.6 °C at station 9-10 (1 m depth), in the inner bay, to a maximum of 5.5 °C at station 6-3 (100 m depth) in lower Cook Inlet. While little vertical differences existed in the outer bay, there was a gradient from warm Cook Inlet waters to cold inner bay waters, with the strongest gradients found near the Homer Spit (Figure 2 (a), top-left panel). Inner bay waters showed a thin cold surface layer.
Sea surface temperature data were similar patterns to last month, showing a gradient of warm water from the Gulf of Alaska, entering Cook Inlet and cooling down as it proceeded counter-clockwise into shallower, coastal waters (Figure 3).
After an all-cold January, the inner and most of the outer bay remained colder than normal (Figure 2, Figure 6, Figure 5). The far outer bay and lower Cook Inlet, however, were already over one standard deviation (in this case °C) warmer than the seasonal mean, from the surface down to depth (Figure 2 (a)). For surface waters, satellite data showed that the rest of the Gulf of Alaska was also no longer colder than normal, but had rejoined the North Pacific warm water anomaly (Figure 4).
Salinity
Salinity values ranged from 29.2 PSU at 9-4 (1m depth) near Homer Spit to 31.7 at 6-3 (100m depth) in lower Cook Inlet. Inner bay waters were fresher than outer bay waters. The outer bay, and especially lower Cook Inlet, was more saline than the inner bay (Figure 2). Weak stratification remained evident in the inner bay and a very thin layer at the surface in the outer bay. The water column in lower Cook Inlet, off Port Graham and Pogi Point, appeared to be completely mixed, as indicated by vertical contours in salinity and temperature (Figure 2 (a)).
Compared to the long-term means, much of the inner bay, including all of T9, was fresher than normal, in some areas by over 2 standard deviations (SD). Some deep waters of lower Cook Inlet, on the other hand, were over 1.5 SDs saltier than normal. Pulled between these two extremes, the deep-water site in the mid-bay showed near normal salinity, after some major fluctuations in 2025 (Figure 8).
Turbidity
Visually, we encountered high turbidity, resembling a glacial plume, off the Homer Spit. This was also noted by the turbidity sensor, recording some areas with a highly unusual 2.5 SD more turbid than normal (Figure 2 (b)). The AlongBay transect showed that this was a small, localized phenomenon, with most of the study area being less turbid than normal (Figure 2 (a)).
Biological conditions
Phytoplankton
Chlorophyll concentrations were low throughout Kachemak Bay, as expected for February, and were near or below the long-term mean (Figure 2, Figure 9). There were pockets of elevated chlorophyll concentrations near the surface, however (Figure 2 (a)), corresponding with elevated O~2 saturation at about 15 m, indicating an onset of primary production (Figure 2).
Wildlife
Two harbor seals were seen off Bear Cove. About 65 Steller sea lions were seen on Flat Island. Birds of note included a yellow-billed loon off Bear Cove. Common murres and marbled murrelets started to return to the inner bay.
Mailing list
Please email Martin at martin.renner@noaa.gov if you would like to be added to or removed from this mailing list.