Two extreme weather events in 2006 and 2013 caused mass starvation among the reindeer herds, and researchers for the first time have linked these extreme weather events in the coastal mainland in northwest Russia with sea ice loss in the adjoining Barents and Kara seas.

Freak warm weather followed by a freeze in winter 2013-14 caused an ice-over of pastures which led to the deaths of some 70,000 reindeer in a famine. This summer, there was an outbreak of deadly anthrax after the hottest Arctic summer on record.

11-15-14 Unseasonably warm - Kwinhagak, Alaska, USA

11-13-14 Unseasonable warm - Unalakleet, Alaska, USA

Interior Alaska’s hot and dry summer of 2013, coupled with an invasion of insect pests, has taken a steep toll on the region’s birch trees, experts say.

Sixty-one thousand reindeer starved to death in the northwestern reaches of the Russian tundra in November 2013 in the largest recorded mortality event of its kind.

Anchorage is having the warmest October on record with an average temperature of 43 degrees. That will beat the record set in 1936 and residents are remarking on the novelty of having green grass and rain on Halloween.

10-24-13 Warm weather delays subsistence - Shaktoolik, Alaska, USA