Background Articles

Hotter weather and less rain drove the three-year drought.

Researchers documented the formation of new, irregularly shaped, steep-sided depressions. The largest was an oval-shaped depression 28 meters (92 feet) deep, 225 meters (738 feet) long, and 95 meters (312 feet) wide. The research team attributes these changes to intermittent seafloor collapse due to the gradual warming of the permafrost sediment frozen beneath the Arctic Shelf since the end of the last ice age.

High water temperatures were measured at Chilkat Lake weir in Alaska, raising concerns for the salmon population, although no harm to the fish has been reported so far.

Behavioral Health: More than two-thirds of Americans are anxious about climate change. They feel grief, anger and hopelessness. We spoke to people about the invisible scars of this growing crisis.

ConocoPhillips' massive Willow project would emit 284 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over its 30-year lifetime.

With marine heat waves helping to wipe out some of Alaska’s storied salmon runs in recent years, officials have resorted to sending emergency food shipments to affected communities while scientists warn that the industry’s days of traditional harvests may be numbered. Salmon all but disappeared from the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) Yukon River run last year.

Just two days after temperatures dipped below -5 degrees Fahrenheit in Hooper Bay, they shot up above freezing, and it started to rain. That caused the water level in the lagoon to rise, and water started to flow through the crack, eroding the lagoon wall.

They have so far identified fewer than 100 hares in the Nome area, fewer than 20 in Ekuk near Bristol Bay and about 10 in the Kotzebue area. Alaska hares are distinct from snowshoe hares mainly because of their size. Jackrabbits are two to three times bigger than the snowshoe, according to Barger.

Bohemian waxwings are a wintertime fixture in Anchorage, darting in large flocks from one berry-filled tree to another.

By Seth Borenstein | The Associated Press FILE - A kayaker paddles in Lake Oroville as water levels remain low due to continuing drought conditions in

The dam altered the subsistence gathering patterns of the Tagish Kwan, the Daḵká Kwa’an and the Kwanlin Dün people. Residences, cabins and fish camps along the Whitehorse rapids were dismantled, gatherings at M’Clintock stopped, and many people dispersed to Fish Lake and Whitehorse.

Warm temperatures, melting sea ice, ocean debris and permafrost degradation dominated discussion of the 2021 NOAA Arctic Report Card.

When hurricanes cause both extreme high tides and heavy rains, devastating floods ensue. Such storms will get much more frequent by the end of the century, according to a new study.

By late November and into early December, they head into their dens for hibernation — but not all of them. About 30% of the Kodiak male bear population don’t den at all, according to a state biologist.

Fourteen Alaska fisheries have been declared federal disasters by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Gina Raimondo issued the declarations on Jan. 21. The announcement includes Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta salmon fisheries, and could lead to federal funding for fishermen.

The ground was completely white in Reykjavík on just 17 days during 2021—the second-lowest number on record. The summer was the warmest on record in many parts of the country and many heat records were broken.

Caucasian glaciers have lost a quarter of their surface area to climate change since the millennium. “We don’t have winters here anymore,” said Sergei Nureddinov, a guest house owner in the mountaintop village of Verkhniy Kani, gesturing to the glacier from his front yard. “The climate catastrophe is here.”

The Skagway Traditional Council is asking harvesters to avoid blue mussels until the population rebounds.

The troublesome shipping on the Northern Sea Route continues into the new year. Almost three weeks after the world's most powerful icebreaker arrived in the Chukchi Sea, none of the four vessels stuck in the area have broken out of the ice.

There was almost twice as much lightning north of 80 degrees in 2021 as in the previous nine years combined, a Finnish firm says.