Background Articles

Anchorage faces record snowfalls and plowing challenges, raising concerns about its preparedness for future extreme precipitation events linked to climate change.

An emergency phase has been declared and the town of Grindavík in Iceland has been evacuated due to increased volcanic activity and damage from earthquakes, with residents being urged to seek safety in emergency relief centers.

The Permafrost and Infrastructure Symposium this month brought together over 50 scientists, engineers and residents this month, creating a space for them to exchange their perspectives on the effects of thawing permafrost in the Arctic.

So far, 22 sea lions have been found, with signs of human interaction, including gunshot wounds.

Extreme weather events like Typhoon Merbok are becoming more common, and many Alaska communities are wondering about the future.

The forces of climate change that are reducing ice cover and opening up the Arctic to more activity are making Alaska more important in regards to Homeland Security. For the Department, which has a combination of public safety, emergency response and law-enforcement functions, climate change is creating new challenges for which old responses are no longer adequate.

Shishaldin is one of the most active volcanoes in the Aleutians — it’s had nearly 30 eruptions since 1824.

Rick Thoman is thinking hard about the cost of climate change and the benefits of better tracking, potentially influencing Alaska’s response to extreme weather and more.

E-bikes offer riders added range, mobility and approachability. But they also potentially bring an added element of increased speed to mixed-use trails that are already buzzing with activity.

A long-running television show, "Alaska Weather" unique to Alaska that provides detailed weather, aviation and marine forecasts across the state will stop airing at the end of June. Especially in rural communities where many residents rely on the show for weather and safety information that's vital to coordinating flights and planning subsistence hunts or commercial fishing trips.

A research project found that the Bering Strait is at least a meter deeper on the Alaska side than previously believed, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center. The project evaluated new and old bathymetric surveys, applying modern technology to the latter to more accurately pinpoint locations.

It’s been a week since ice severed a fiber optic cable in the Arctic Ocean, cutting communications to several Northwest Alaska communities.

When you see a wild bird such as a duck or seagull, think bird flu. Because it’s actually more likely than not they’re infected with the virus. And many species of wild birds are asymptomatic, meaning that they don’t show any symptoms.

For nearly three decades, the Arctic Council has been a successful example of post-Cold War cooperation. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has led to a freezing of relations; what risks do the breakdown of Arctic collaboration pose to the region?

With Arctic permafrost thaw rapidly outpacing projections, researchers are racing to understand the impacts of an increasingly unstable future.

Wednesday was the annual test of Alaska’s tsunami warning system — but Homer, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Sitka and Unalaska didn't hear it at all.

Questions still linger about what caused the bear to kill a woman and her baby — but more important for Wales is the question of how to move on.

With ice declining, bowhead whales of the Pacific Arctic choose to stay longer in the waters up north. A change in migration patterns could affect the bowheads' health and safety, as well as the hunters' access to the subsistence resource.

Engineers caution that residents wanting to clear their own roofs face greater risk of hurting themselves or damaging roofs than from a collapse.

Russian and American scientists have been cut off from collaborating for a year, and Arctic research is suffering.