Auto shops are seeing more business because of damaged tires, and drivers are often inching through a messy maze of bad road conditions. Road crews are making headway but still catching up from unfavorable weather last month.

Kenai City Council members approved the city’s five-year capital improvement plan Wednesday

Tulips of the Korolkov variety (Tulipa korolkowii) have started to bloom a month early in the southern Zhambyl region. The air temperature has hovered around 16 degrees Celsius since mid-February.

The spill followed a sudden rise in warm temperatures in recent days. Hooper Bay Mayor Sandra Hill said that the thaw and rain had melted the previously frozen land surrounding the sewage lagoon, causing a wall of the lagoon to cave.

Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.

The tsunami threat around the Pacific from a huge undersea volcanic eruption began to recede Sunday, while the extent of damage to Tonga remained unclear. Satellite images showed the spectacular eruption that took place Saturday evening, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a mushroom above the blue Pacific waters.

Changing weather with a lot of snow, rain and strong frost with icing, has made it difficult for the reindeer to reach lichen and moss on the ground in Nordland.