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.

“The exact reasons why the return fell at the lower end of the forecast range are unknown at this time, but poorer than average marine survival is a leading candidate.”

Russian officials have said the death of a 12-year-old boy, a member of a reindeer-herding family from the Yamal tundra 1,300 miles north of Moscow, was the first fatality in Siberia linked to the pathogen since 1941. Twenty others have been diagnosed with anthrax.

When temperatures are warm enough, it's a time many Alaskans take their families out swimming. Sometimes the fun comes along with an annoying rash known as 'Swimmer's Itch.'

On 11 April 2016 we observed high slushflow and wet snow avalanche activity at the environmental monitoring station Kobbefjord in West Greenland.

Persistent warm temperatures the last few weeks have melted much of the snow, including stockpiles the city tried to set aside.