Several Agder municipalities, including Grimstad, have closed schools for the week due to heavy snowfall, with Sivilforsvaret assisting home services and residents shoveling to maintain access.

Damage was so great that it could not immediately be assessed. Japanese media reports said tens of thousands of homes were destroyed.

Yukon's Highway 3 has been closed for six days due to heavy snowfall and challenging conditions, with no clear reopening date.

The warehouse at 4640 Gambell St. damaged Wednesday is owned by Marten Martensen, the primary owner of the Continental Auto Group in Anchorage. He was part of a group that purchased the property in October 2022 and briefly used it to store around 10,000 tires until last December’s successive snowstorms caused the structure to begin collapsing.

While Northwest Arctic residents encounter bears year-round, such sightings are not common in Kotzebue this time of year, Cantine said. Charlie Henry Jr., an Elder from Kotzebue, agreed: “That is so strange — brown bear in the middle part of the coldest months.”

A young Nunavummiut hunter, who's known for providing country food to his community, fell through the ice in late December on a snowmobile route he'd safely traveled just weeks before.