The swelling Tom River in southwestern Siberia has led to a partial dam collapse in the city of Tomsk. This year’s heavy rainfall, combined with abnormally warm spring weather, has led to severe flooding in Russia’s Urals and western Siberia. So far, the floods have submerged around 15,600 homes and 28,000 land plots in 193 Russian towns and cities across 33 regions.
Environmentalists say the latest flooding may have sent radioactive substances into the river, potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of people living near the banks of the Tobol downstream. State nuclear agency Rosatom, whose subsidiary operates the mines at the Dobrovolnoye uranium deposit, denied that its mining facilities were impacted by the flood.
Fuel shipments normally take place during autumn from departure ports such as Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. However, last fall saw a sudden freeze-up and quickly accumulating sea-ice on the Northern Sea Route, including the Kara Sea. Of the two rescued barges, one contained 7,000 tons of diesel fuel, while the other was loaded with 170 tons of kerosene.
The mayor of the southern Russian city of Orenburg urged residents to evacuate immediately on Friday as water in the nearby Ural River reached critically dangerous levels and was not expected to recede until next week.
A snowpocalypse has engulfed Russia in recent days, with various regions and cities struggling to deal with the freak weather.
Father missing under snow; more than 200 people continue search and rescue at -23C, snowstorm and bleak light of polar night.
Alexey Kolganov films himself skating on transparent ice of lake Baikal, as new cracks form under his skates. Most surprising is the unexpected, cosmic sound.
“This new snow has no name,” said Lars-Anders Kuhmunen, a reindeer herder from Kiruna, Sweden’s northernmost town, near the Norwegian border. “I don’t know what it is. It is like early tjaevi, which normally comes in March. The winters are warmer now and there is rain, making the ground icy. The snow on top is very bad snow and the reindeer can’t dig for their food.”
Cape Breton finally looks like a winter wonderland. A quick-moving storm that raced across Atlantic Canada dropped about 37 cm of snow over the Sydney area.
Loaded with up to 38,000 tons of oil, the 245 meter long tanker Shturman Skuratov makes this year's first transit shipment on the Northern Sea Route. Despite major concentrations of sea-ice, the tanker sails without icebreaker assistance.
On Sunday, Nomeites noticed that their internet wasn’t working and that cell service was spottier than usual. Large fiberoptic line was damaged by sea ice deep underneath the moving sea ice above.
On Sunday night, a plump ringed seal pup was spotted on the ice in front of Breaker’s Bar on Nome’s Front Street. UAF Alaska Sea Grant agent Gay Sheffield was called and moved the pup to a more secluded beach. The ice had likely gone out too fast and the mother finished up the normal weaning process on the ice chunks in front of Nome.
Parts of Northern Siberia were up to 7℃ warmer than normal in 2020. The warming is the most significant along parts of the North Siberian coast, and especially around the peninsulas of Taymyr and Yamal. This has been brought on, in part, by polar vortex on the Arctic coast.
The number of ships entering Canada's Northwest Passage, and the distances sailed, are all increasing, says a new report from the Arctic Council.
Locals in the far northern Russian region believe between 60,000-80,000 animals might have died of starvation over the past few months. The tragedy follows the formation of a thick layer of ice across major parts of the Yamal tundra.
Last week, a 908-foot Russian tanker carrying liquified natural gas passed south through the Russian side of the Bering Strait, with two more to follow. The ships are traversing the northern coast of Siberia, called the North Sea Route, in the middle of January with no icebreaker escort, an unprecedented event that may hint at the future of the region as climate change alters global commerce.
Two more Russian LNG tankers made history earlier this month passing through the North Sea Route, which extends along the northern coast of Russian Asia, in late January, the latest commercial ship
Researchers in Canada find that population did not bother making the 6,000km roundtrip in 2018-2019
A research vessel, Norseman II, was trapped in unusually dense sea ice for 14 days off the Seward Peninsula coast during a Pacific walrus study, but is now en route to Nome for repairs.
Puddles on ice, slippery sidewalks and heavy wet snow berms are remnants of a three-day weather event that pummeled Nome and the region. According to UAF Climate Specialist Rick Thoman, “that’s the highest three day total on record for Nome in March in the past 116 years.
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