An extremely rare Spade-toothed Beaked Whale Mesoplodon traversii washed ashore in Otago, providing the first chance to dissect and study such a specimen, with DNA analysis underway to confirm its species.
“Last year we got several reports from tourists and scientists that they saw around six walruses dead here on the west side of Svalbard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sample them as the dead walruses drifted away by the time we got to the place. But it’s not normal to get so many reported dead walruses in such a small area," said Christian Lydersen, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Now samples (collected by a Station Manager in July 2023) have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza.
Northern Finland experienced unprecedented June temperatures and abnormal rainfall, deviating significantly from historical weather patterns.
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.
An observer reports unusual sightings of Sabine's gulls, including juveniles, outside their typical migration period, suggesting a potential new breeding colony near Nome.
Sakha is now the fourth region in the Far East where a state of emergency is currently in place due to wildfires. The other three are the Zabaykalsky and Amur regions, as well as the republic of Buryatia. Russia’s wildfire season officially began in early March. By mid-April, regions in the Far East recorded nearly twice as many fires as they had during the same period last year, with most blazes caused by human negligence.
A humpback whale named Stanislav was successfully freed from a fishing net in a first-of-its-kind rescue operation in Russia's Barents Sea.
Three weeks in a row, residents of Nome and the Southern Seward Peninsula Coast received winter storm warnings from the National Weather Service. Seven out of the last eight springs have been unusually stormy. This spring alone, since March, there have been eight significant storm days.
Cows at two Texas dairy farms have contracted bird flu, marking the first known instance of the disease in livestock, amidst recovery from devastating wildfires.
Authorities in Siberia’s republic of Tyva declared a regional state of emergency due to ongoing wildfires exacerbated by prolonged hot and dry weather.
After experiencing an unprecedented closure of subsistence salmon fishing, the Port Clarence district, including Teller and Brevig Mission, is now open for fishing.
Northern Afghanistan devastated by flash floods, 315 dead, 1,600 injured. Thousands of homes damaged, livestock lost. Villagers lack essentials.
Two people were killed after a torrent of water poured over a cofferdam in northwestern Russia early Monday and flooded the surrounding area, authorities said.
Longyearbyen airport had an average temperature of 6.1°C, which is 2.5°C above normal. Global air and sea surface temperatures were also at record levels.
Temperatures in Russia’s capital hit an all-time high of 32 degrees Celsius on Tuesday – Moscow’s hottest day in over 130 years. The heatwave follows a spate of volatile weather in the city and other parts of Russia. In June, after severe rainfall flooded parts of the city, Moscow was struck by Storm Edgar, which killed two people and injured dozens more. A rare tornado was also sighted in the Moscow region.
Around 40 daily temperature records were broken across Russia and annexed Crimea on Tuesday as hot summer weather gripped the country. The unprecedented temperatures have engulfed Russia from its central regions to the Far East, reaching a maximum of 38.7 degrees Celsius in the village of Mamakan in southeastern Siberia’s Irkutsk region.
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.
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.
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.
Warm summer days lasted all August along the coast to the Barents Sea, from Hammerfest in the west to Kirkenes in the east. The latter is now experiencing the warm weather to last into September with several days reaching maximum temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius (68 F).
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