Background Articles

"Global-mean surface air temperatures for the first days of June 2023 were the highest in the ERA5 data record for early June by a substantial margin", said Copernicus. Some of the unit's data goes back as far as 1950.

Lingering snow and cloudy days resulted in temperatures about 3.5 degrees below the statewide average from March through May.

The Bering Sea region is front and center for federal fisheries researchers after the 2019 heatwave produced extreme change in the marine ecosystem.

But the data illustrates a circumstance both unseen and commonplace in Alaska’s biggest city: In April, unhoused people were found dead on a sidewalk, in a ditch, in a sleeping bag tucked in the corner of a parking lot, along the state’s busiest highway.

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

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.

At the world’s northernmost year-round research station, scientists are racing to understand how the fastest-warming place on Earth is changing — and what those changes may mean for the planet’s future.

Anchorage municipal officials say at least 16 roofs have buckled in the city this winter under heavy snow and ice, and they’re wary of additional collapses after another storm dropped more snow this weekend.

In March, Ingrid Weisse, her husband and two young sons were aboard Alaska Airlines Flight 889, headed home from Portland, Ore. to Hawaii, when the Boeing 737 began buffeting so fiercely that it felt as if the plane would shake itself apart. The reason for this is clear-air turbulence, As global temperatures increase due to rising levels of greenhouse emissions such as carbon dioxide, the jet stream is experiencing more wind shear.

About 800 people have had to leave their homes due to the risk of avalanches in East Iceland.

World leaders already have many options to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and protect people, according to the United Nations report.

More than 700 inches of snow have fallen at Mammoth Mountain, almost burying entire houses and setting new record for snowfall. The snowfall in the Sierra Nevada range will help mitigate drought conditions in coming years.

Atmospheric river boosted California's snowpack, especially in Central and Southern Sierra. Now the levels are record level creating safety issues such as roofs collapsing and helping with drought conditions across the western states.

Libraries at two Anchorage elementary schools — Klatt and Spring Hill — were closed after the maintenance department identified ceiling damage. The district also decided “out of an abundance of caution” to proactively close the libraries of Bear Valley Elementary, Fire Lake Elementary, and Ravenwood Elementary, which share the same building design with Klatt and Spring Hill.

In addition to blizzard conditions, Kotzebue residents have been experiencing power outages, water service interruptions and travel complications because of the storms.

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

Atmospheric rivers, those long, powerful streams of moisture in the sky, are becoming more frequent in the Arctic, and they’re helping to drive dramatic shrinking of the Arctic’s sea ice cover.

East Finnmark region was 4 to 5 degrees warmer than normal in January.

Six weeks after a series of snowstorms dumped more than three feet of snow, bus stops along a handful of state-maintained roads remain buried, forcing transit users to navigate deep, slippery drifts and towers of snow.

Ship captains are battling with major volumes of sea-ice across the Russian far north. Temperature data show that the Arctic has almost never before been this hot.