The weather may be cold, but it’s too soon to get out on the river ice. The ice is forming up better than it did two years ago, when the winter was the warmest on record, but it is not freezing as fast or as well as last winter, when conditions were near-perfect.
Usually Aug. 7 is the midpoint of the coho run, but this year it was not until Aug. 8 that numbers at the Bethel test fishery increased, and then only modestly.
The tragedy came after several days of dire warnings about the dangers of river travel due to an unusually early warm-up. Search and rescuers crawled onto weak ice, open water all around, to help retrieve the survivors.
Two four-wheelers carrying five men leaving Bethel broke through needle ice on the upper end of Church Slough on Sunday night. Two of the men died, while three others were treated for hypothermia in Bethel.
Late freeze on the Lower Kuskokwim produced ice conditions unsafe for travel in November.
For the first time, the race will run two laps to its halfway point and back. Mushers agree it’s the safest way to run the race, but it could present challenges.
How will climate change affect health in Alaska? Dangerous travel conditions could cause more accidents, warmer temperatures could spread new diseases and the topsy-turvy weather could worsen mental health. Those are some conclusions from a new state report released Monday. Listen now
Sled dog racing season officially began on the Kuskokwim this weekend. Listen now
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
"Our roads are slippery when there would be snow to where the children were out with their sled. Planes never cancelled as much as this year to where the flights were backed up to 3 or 4 days. Lately, we've been seeing grasses regrowing after it warms up out there."
The past couple years have been warmer than normal contributing to where the river is still flowing ice and with some of the plants still green.
The loss of frozen ground in Arctic regions is a striking result of climate change. And it is also a cause of more warming to come.
Early breakup brings early arrivals.
The start of January 2016 felt like it was early springtime.
1-9-15 Record high temperatures - Bethel, Alaska, USA
A rare winter robin has been spotted in Bethel and it has folks wondering what exactly it means. Locals and a biologist say they think it has to do with climate change.
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