The water well is dry due to a lack of rain, and the village’s distribution system is damaged. As of Thursday, residents had only 5,000 gallons of drinkable water left.
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.
Sunshine is abundant this time of year, but cooler temperatures this week have slowed the melting of a well above normal snowpack in Fairbanks. That’s affecting migratory bird’s arrival at a local refuge.
November is usually the second snowiest month in Anchorage, but this year, snow totals are well below average. So far, only about three inches of snow has fallen in the city. November usually sees an average of seven inches by now, with a total of a little more than 13 inches for the month. National Weather Service Meteorologist Dave Snider says total snowfall for the season is also well below normal.
The river is so rough in the Upper Kuskokwim area that it is impassable to vehicle and snow machine traffic. Big boulders of snow-covered ice are scattered across the river caused by high water and a late freeze up.
“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.
An ice jam is holding downstream of Napaimute, flooding the seasonal village. At Aniak, the ice is shifting, according to Aniak resident Dave Cannon.
Most Kuskokwim River communities have escaped heavy flooding so far, but not Kwethluk. Social media photos show water rising high and completely covering
The warm winter has made traveling on the river ice more hazardous than Bethel Search and Rescue ever remembers.
Drivers need to stick to marked trails on the Lower Kuskokwim River, according to the latest update from Bethel Search and Rescue’s Earl Samuelson. There is a spot in front of Oscarville that has only 9 inches of ice, which Samuelson says is too thin to drive a truck on.
The musk ox were stranded on the ice floes after wandering onto the sea ice during breakup.
After heavy snowfall on Jan. 19, the ice road from Bethel to Tuluksak has been plowed and is open for use. Napaimute Traditional Council’s Mark Leary, who
The ride downriver had been good. But by evening on the way back, it started to get bumpy.“There was lots of dark spots, lots of water,” said Nikiefer. Then suddenly, the ice turned needley. The snowmachine stopped, and then started to sink. They jumped off and started to swim.
The ice road on the frozen Kuskokwim River has been plowed to its longest length ever: 355 miles. That’s longer than most traditional highways in the state.
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.
“The ice was so thick flowing down the river. It was forming so fast. It was freezing so fast. Just amazing. I’d never seen anything like that," one of the hunters, Rex Nick, said.
Poor trail conditions have pushed the Kuskokwim 300 Season Opener race back another week.
Travelers need to stay off Straight Slough, which flows into the main Kuskokwim River near Bethel.
About a year ago, Tununak opened a $19 million, state-of-the-art airport, but shifting permafrost is buckling the runway.
Several hundred Pacific walruses have started to gather on an island off the northwest coast of Alaska — the earliest the animals have been observed leaving the water for the annual ritual, according to federal wildlife officials.
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