"It almost snowed when it was flowering. The bees were barely out, and we see the result of that here," said fruit farmer Kari Lutro. The decline for plums is as much as 90 percent, compared with last year.

The novel virus has only affected two people, both in Fairbanks. The "Alaskapox" was first identified in 2015 after a Fairbanks woman sought medical attention for a small skin lesion, pained fever and fatigue. In August, a second Fairbanks woman with no known connection to the first was found to have the virus. Scientists suspect both women may have gotten the virus from contact with small wild animals.

Wild roses typically bloom in June and July, and go dormant when temperatures drop in the fall and winter.

Plastic containers washed out to sea after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster are starting to wash up on the shores of Okinawa Prefecture, leaving residents puzzled at the time it took for the items to travel just 2,000 kilometers.

Khalaktyrsky Beach near Petropavlovsk is littered with hundreds of dead sea animals, from deep-sea Giant Pacific octopuses, to seals, sea urchins, stars, crabs and fish. Surfers were the first to raise alarm after problems with eyesight, fevers and throat aches.

Wild roses usually bloom in May and June, but warm fall temperatures may have signaled roses in Fairbanks to bloom later than usual.

"In a summer of continuous rainfall I would presume glorious growth and tons of picking...but this did not happen. The blueberries never took off, neither did the soap berries known to us as bear berries."

Mosquito populations may be down, but the gnats, no-see-ums, white sox and several other unidentified bugs were relentless.

A rare deep-sea fish was discovered on Vancouver Island this month. A pair of friends, Natalie Mueller and Andie Lafrentz, were walking along Whiffin Spit in Sooke on Sept. 19 when they spotted what they first thought was a “large piece of scrap metal.”

In the pictures, Måøya looks like a pristine natural gem on the coast of Trøndelag. But when scientists and adolescents started digging into the soil, they got shock.

The bear had entered buildings and food caches, according to National Park Service officials.

When glaciologist Jack Kohler returned to Austre Brøggerbreen in Svalbard, he was shocked. More than three meters of the ice at the glacier front had melted away. That's a record. And an ice tunnel had become a trench.

An exceptionally warm air current from the southeast has kept days and nights unseasonably mild in southern and central Finland since last week. Meanwhile the north of the country has been shivering with rain and temperatures in the single digits. The highest reading in decades was recorded in Kokemäki, southwest Finland.

Exterminators are fielding more calls about rodent activity. Rat-related calls are up 20 percent from last year; include mice and calls are up 57 percent.

The repeated run-ins with the bear were part of the reason that one children's camp decided to move out of Russian Jack to another park.

A wild rose (Rosa acicularis) blooms late during a warm fall.

The thermometer at the main visitor centre in Þingvellir National Park went all the way down to –9.6°C last night and meteorologists confirm that is one of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in a built-up area at this time of year—and could even have been a new record.

The lengthy wildfire season follows a record-hot Arctic summer. People living in Yakutsk are waking up to heavy smog brought from the wildfires raging to the west, east and north; struggling to breathe and with head, eye and throat aches.

Odd Arne Hætta thought his dog Leo had found an elk, but it turned out to be something else entirely. Badgers are not common so far north but, sporadic cases have been observed in the past, including in Skibotn in Troms.

The National Park Service said a 22-year-old Ohio man was salvaging moose meat when he was killed in the national park’s first recorded fatal bear mauling.