Background Articles

Otto Florschutz, a candidate in the 2022 U.S. House special election, was found dead following a landslide in Wrangell, Alaska, that also claimed the lives of four members of the Heller family.

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

Alaska communities are facing significant challenges due to climate change, including the disappearance of snow crabs, threats to subsistence hunting and fishing, and difficulties in processing and storing food, but some communities are taking action and developing local climate adaptation plans with the support of funding and collaboration between different governments and agencies.

Four unsheltered people, two of whom were in wheelchairs, have died outdoors in Anchorage over the past week as winter weather hits the city, highlighting the ongoing issue of homelessness and the need for preventative measures.

A snowstorm in Southcentral Alaska causes power outages and leads to the cancellation of a Veterans Day ceremony, while crews work to clear roads and restore electricity.

Many municipalities still have outdated sewage systems that are at risk of flooding during heavy rainfall.

Evacuations due to the risk of landslides were lifted at Seyðisfjörður this morning. Rain in Neskaupstaður yesterday was on a once-in-a-century scale. Some roads have been badly damaged.

Due to recent flooding, FEMA assessors will work with state, local and tribal officials to determine if federal aid is warranted with flood and erosion damage.

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

Anchorage is cool and wet this summer as the rest of the world bakes in the sun and heat.

A low-pressure front that’s stuck over the southern part of the Bering Sea has formed clouds, which the jet stream carries east into southern Alaska.

The virtual reality project Qikiqtaruk: Arctic at Risk is transporting people to Yukon's northernmost point without them ever having to leave home.

This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers — and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the water table and flow into the ocean.

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.

The state’s rural areas lead the world in renewably powered microgrids. So if the grid of the future is being incubated in rural Alaska, can urban Alaska, like the Railbelt, benefit from some of these strategies and lessons learned?

Scientists say worsening heat waves have a clear link to climate change. This year, a seasonal El Niño pattern will also be adding fuel to the fire.

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.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has declared this year’s climate to be an El Niño year, based on Pacific Ocean conditions.

State officials say Unalakleet will see work to improve conditions on its water system in the near future.

Since the first big winter storms, snow on the western Kenai Peninsula has collapsed roofs, broken gas meters and raised backcountry avalanche risk. “I think we can safely say that this was the most snow in any winter for the northwest Kenai Peninsula since the winter of 2011, 2012,” said Rick Thoman.