Concern builds as rain increases weight of snow pack

Extreme winds and cold temperatures have affected the areas. At one point over the weekend, 20,000 households in Mat-Su lost power. 

Here in South Fox we received about 10" of heavy wet snow Dec 25-26 that changed to rain, with over an inch of rain before the precipitation ended.

The winter storm that dumped snow and freezing rain on the Interior over the holiday weekend also caused the roofs of two buildings in Delta Junction to partially collapse Sunday.

Strong south winds hit 71 miles per hour in St. Michael, Shishmaref had its sea ice blown away and the Nome Airport saw 0.64 inches of precipitation – mostly in the form of rain - last weekend. The storm that hit on Saturday, Dec. 18 and continued all day Sunday brought the total precipitation for December thus far to 2.04 inches.

"We lost internet and a power outage effected several residential homes and businesses. Of course there was no way to travel. Thankfully no medical emergencies."

A seawall planned for Utqiagvik is aimed at protecting residents from extreme storms while preserving their connection to the ocean.

Back-to-back winter storms hit Nome and the region with very strong, screaming winds and accompanying blowing snow. While the first storm on Friday seemed just like a warm up, the second storm hit the region with very strong winds that knocked out power in Wales, ripped buildings apart in Golovin and brought water levels up 6.73 feet over normal. The high winds also pushed away ice cover.

Several roads have been closed as a result of landslides and flooding.

This happened about 250 m from the shore of the Fraser River in a creek at Colony Farms.

Conditions at a Canadian pump station improved over night after they officials issued an evacuation order that had Whatcom residents concerned of more flooding.

Since 7 a.m. on Monday, crews in Vancouver responded to reports of flooding in 46 locations. Average annual cost of property damage or losses due to severe weather has increased from about $400 million before 2009 to about $2 billion annually in the last few years.

Extreme rain swamped rivers and farmland across southern B.C. and triggered mudslides that blocked every major highway connecting the Lower Mainland to the rest of the country in November 2021. This is a timeline of the first week of the crisis.

“It got very cold the day we got there, it got down to like single digits and ice came out of the mountains and rivers and sloughs everywhere,” said Allyn Long, general manager of Alaska Logistics.

A tornado watch was issued around 5:30 p.m. and rescinded less than an hour later, but the storm caused considerable damage on the University of British Columbia campus. The school is located on a peninsula not far from the airport.

Scotland’s only working nuclear power plant at Torness shut down in an emergency procedure this week when jellyfish clogged the sea water-cooling intake pipes at the plant. To protect marine life and avert nuclear disasters, scientists are investigating the use of drones to provide estimates of jellyfish locations, amounts, and density.

Thawing permafrost and erosion is resulting in the loss of infrastructure in Newtok. These images show impacts on utility poles, and the shoreline.

The church is no outlier — several buildings in the community are affected by freeze-thaw cycle of permafrost. Even an iconic church is not immune from changing permafrost.

"I've seen photos documenting one squirrel in Nome from 2007 and a Nome Nugget article in 2019, but we've had 3-4 reports of red squirrels this summer."

A failing breakwater in Conception Bay South in Newfoundland shows just how ill-prepared most places are for the climate crisis.