In the depths of the long night that cloaks the Arctic in frigid darkness for three months each winter, a surprising patch of open water appeared, just to the north of Greenland.

Winds of up to 85 mph ripped up the Southwest Alaska coast on Friday, upending smokehouses, tearing electric lines and flinging a house across the road.

Anchorage sidewalks were slick with ice and the roads were full of puddles because of unseasonably high temperatures.By mid morning the temperature had reached 46 degrees.

Nunavut experienced some 'strange' weather in the past few days, causing shipping containers to fly through one community and muddy puddles in another.

Hundreds of Chugach Electric customers in Anchorage and Girdwood remained without power Wednesday morning amid outages from Fairbanks to Nikiski.

High wind warning for Anchorage. Winds could reach 50 mph with gusts to 100 mph.

Climate change is effecting the people of the Solomon Islands in many ways. Sea level rise is a major driver.

Partially derived from former Super Typhoon Nuri, the typhoon's remnants joined up with the polar jet stream and a very strong disturbance in the mid-latitude belt of westerly winds, leading to explosive development of low pressure.

Increasing winds may drive the air quality to become "unhealthy to hazardous," said a statement from Eileen Probasco, planning director with the Matanuska-Sustina Borough.

A band of wet, warm weather barreled into Southcentral Alaska on Friday and stirred up an odd blend of high winds, slushy roads and even rainbow sightings.

A windstorm pounded parts of Southcentral Alaska early Monday, knocking down trees and cutting off power for thousands of people from the Matanuska Valley to the Kenai Peninsula.

A second major wind storm in less than two weeks swept through Alaska's largest city on Sunday, but unlike the earlier storm, its greatest intensity was mostly on higher elevations where gusts as high as 120 mph were reported, weather forecasters said.

At least 50,000 homes and businesses lost power late Tuesday, and outages continued through Wednesday.

A winter storm lashed the sandy beaches at the mouth of the Ninilchik River with ferocious waves, powerful enough to uproot thousands of razor clams.

Gusts over 80 mph pummeled the city, compacting snow and causing power outages for thousands. Nearly 20,000 Matanuska Electric Association members lost power Friday morning. On Point MacKenzie west of Wasilla, crews faced snow drifts so large that they needed snowmachines and snowshoes to reach areas where repairs were needed.

'We did what we could to prepare, and still, we were underprepared'. Harvey’s assessment is much uglier in the daylight. Much of the town looks like it took a point-blank blast from an army tank. The photos do little to capture the sheer shock of local residents, especially those who lost their homes. Some are a bit more stoic than others, focused on rebuilding. Others are understandably much more raw and emotional, dissolving into tears while passerby rush to comfort them.

On Sunday, a gust of wind unexpectedly hit an Alaska Airlines jet on the Dillingham runway as it was preparing to taxi from the terminal, causing it to slide on the icy tarmac.

The Bristol Bay Times - Serving Dillingham, Naknek, King Salmon and Southwest villages

Severe weather has knocked out power lines, flooded villages and brought public transport to a standstill in the worst-affected areas. On Monday, the storm derailed a Swedish passenger train, injuring three people.

Environment Canada issues severe weather warning, winds up to 90km per hour. Residents are advised to stay off the roads and take shelter because of reduced visibility and unsafe road conditions.