The community of Aklavik, N.W.T., persevered when devastating floods led the government to attempt to relocate it. Now it faces another existential crisis as climate change thaws the permafrost, forever changing the community’s landscape and wildlife.

The opening of the famed Dettah ice road, a six-kilometre route that cuts across Yellowknife Bay, is typically opened on Dec, 24, according to a 20-year average. Yet a week-and-a-half later, there's still no word on when it will be operational.

The church is no outlier — several buildings in the community are affected by freeze-thaw cycle of permafrost. Even an iconic church is not immune from changing permafrost.

The remote community of roughly 600 people has been on flood watch for about a week and is the latest of several communities in the Northwest Territories to be affected by historic flooding on the Mackenzie River, caused by the spring breakup.

Spring is still months away in the Northwest Territories, but people are already looking ahead at the spring breakup season. In Aklavik, some see signs that could point to heavy flooding, a lot of snowfall, very high snow piles all over town and thick ice.

Lynx have attacked five dogs in Inuvik since late November, a trend a local wildlife officer calls surprising. The behaviour is unusual since lynx are typically reclusive animals and don't usually come into inhabited areas.

Anglers in Aklavik, N.W.T., are trying to figure out why there was a shortage of fish in local hotspots this year.

A coyote caught on camera in the Richardson Mountain range is the first spotted in the region in decades, a wildlife biologist says.

About 10 grizzly bears have been living at the community dump in Aklavik, N.W.T., this summer. Arey said a couple of bears were destroyed earlier this summer, but said more may need to be killed as residents are still seeing the bears coming into the community near homes.

A Department of Health news release states the boil water advisory is in relation to high turbidity levels in the river, or muddy water. The turbidity is caused by high water levels.

This spring’s closures on the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway are a result of unusually wet weather and drivers failing to respect road closures, according to engineers with the Northwest Territories Infrastructure Department.

Freda Alunik says it looks 'just like spring' at her camp near the Mackenzie River.

Egret near Inuvik observed by numerous folks in Inuvik.

Chris Burn at Carleton University is tracking the growing cost of maintaining Yukon’s Dempster Highway as warmer weather brings more landslides, washouts and other challenges.

For years now, buildings in Inuvik have been sinking due to thawing permafrost. It's part of a worrying trend across the Arctic, writes David Michael Lamb.

The runway, built in 1958, is over-top of permafrost and frozen soils.

It wasn’t part of your imagination if you thought it was warmer this summer in the Northwest Territories. Inuvik experienced its seventh warmest summer on record according to data from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

A permafrost scientist in the N.W.T. is leading an experiment that compacts snow near the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk Highway to see if that will slow down permafrost thaw and protect buildings and roads built atop it.

The hamlet said it's declaring a state of emergency because flooding from the Peel River cut off access to the community's airport, and because access to fresh water could be "inaccessible in the imminent future." 

From the thickness of the ice to moose migration and pelt quality, hunters and trappers say the late arrival of cold weather in the N.W.T. is "going to have effects, down the line."