Back-to-back blizzards with tons of snow and high winds have hammered Nome since late January and the accumulation of a total of 76 inches of snow is now beginning to take a toll on residents.
Leads appeared following a warm storm, in areas with usually stable, shorefast ice. The leads separate many crabbers from their pots, and are illustrative of how Norton Sound's recent erratic sea ice patterns are altering subsistence opportunities and patterns.
Public health officials confirmed that four Nome residents had been hospitalized in early January with preliminary results pointing to poising from foodborne type E botulism from an aged beluga flipper.
When the green water is here, its dangerous to travel straight across the Lagoon to White Mountain. In the past we took the land route, cross on Kitchavik river and on up over land to White Mountain.
This was the warmest autumn on record for western Alaska. Local observer comments on how lack of sea ice is effecting fish and bird behavior.
Stormy weather stalled a search and rescue effort on Monday for a man from White Mountain, whose 4-wheeler broke through thin ice at the edge of Golovin Bay on Sunday.
The snowfall in Nome over the winter didn’t break the all-time record but it came close. According to the National Weather Service, 115.5 inches of snow fell, making the winter of 2017/18 number two for snowfall since modern weather reporting began.
Looking seaward over the last week from almost all points along the coasts of Norton Sound, folks have been dazzled by bright blue horizons colored by open water.
Last Tuesday, February 20, residents of Little Diomede have seen the impossible. Instead of looking out at a frozen seascape of ice, they witnessed open water and high surf crashing onto the shores and coming up beyond the high water line.
It seems like digging out from snow and some more snow is all Nomeites do this winter.
We've had so much wind this winter, on the 15th of January, the winds were warm!!!!!!
Walruses were found washed up on the beaches from Cape Espenberg to Shishmaref and further west. Samples taken from the intestines of four walrus all had moderate to high levels of saxitoxin.
Over the last five months, multiple sled dogs in Nome were attacked by musk oxen in at least four separate incidents.
We do not ever recall having flowers blooming this late in the year.
Community concerned about health and safety from old site.
There were lines of cranes flying north and then this morning just before daylight, flying south
On Sunday, Austin Ahmasuk went along the beach to his camp at the Sinuk River, about 28 miles from Nome, and shortly after hitting West Beach past the port, he found one dead seabird on the shore.
A biologist peers into his collection jar to find an example of the green caterpillars that have been dining on willow bushes, making brown batches on the landscape in and about Nome.
The storm raises local concerns about food security and preparedness for transportation emergencies.
Extreme winter weather conditions.
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