Tulips of the Korolkov variety (Tulipa korolkowii) have started to bloom a month early in the southern Zhambyl region. The air temperature has hovered around 16 degrees Celsius since mid-February.

A large number of drivers have suffered damage to their vehicles, including tyre blow-outs, as winter weather has caused potholes to appear in roads maintained both by local councils and the road and coastal administration. Repairs are underway, but conditions are still bumpy, as heavy snow has turned to ice, and then to rushing meltwater on several occasions. Such conditions are notoriously damaging to road surfaces.

On Wednesday morning, March 2, marine hunters of the community "Daurkin" found a polar bear 1.5 kilometers from the village of Laurentia on the ice of the bay. The animal was driven away from the village towards the sea. Two weeks previously, 11 polar predators were spotted near the village of Neshkan.

A man injured by a polar bear was transported by helicopter to the Chukotka regional hospital from the village of Neshkan. The incident happened near the village. The predator attacked a man near the carcass of a whale that died last fall, Chukotka news agency reports.

Historically cold temperatures made it difficult for invasive species survive in Alaska. The Japanese skeleton shrimp Caprella mutica is now established in Unalaska area and in this observation observed on a buoy line in Nateekin Bay.

Pussy willows sprouting on March 1st! This is the second time in Kotzebue that a March bloom has been documented in LEO Network., but this time it is much earlier.

Observations this year from Huu-ay-aht territory see that volume of herring may finally be improving, as the First Nation is reporting a growing number of wild salmon migrating through its rivers.

A steel-framed building was broken apart by wind in Hafnarfjörður on Friday, search & rescue teams attended over a hundred call-outs, and Hellisheiði and other important roads were closed once more. February was one of the coldest and windiest for many years.

The spill followed a sudden rise in warm temperatures in recent days. Hooper Bay Mayor Sandra Hill said that the thaw and rain had melted the previously frozen land surrounding the sewage lagoon, causing a wall of the lagoon to cave.

The melt season for Arctic sea ice is underway after the annual maximum extent was reached late last month. Sea ice extent reached its annual maximum on Feb. 25, 15 days earlier than the 1981-2010 average date and one of the earliest dates for that milestone in the four-decade satellite record.

Central and northern Japan have received record snowfall this week, with some locations seeing as much as 12 feet.

The main Bering Sea ice pack has begun its retreat to the north after extending to the Pribilofs earlier this month. This winter’s freeze-up has been reminiscent of more historical sea ice conditions.

Only two passenger flights from Anchorage made it to Dillingham within the last week — one on Saturday and one on Monday. Another flight is expected Tuesday afternoon.

Video footage shows a 30m crane tower being toppled by the severe weather in Krakow.

Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.

The report came from game managers in the Chukotka region. Predators were noticed on the night of February 17-18 and were driven away from the settlement on snowmobiles by employees of the "Bear Patrol". Earlier, a similar incident occurred in Lavrentiya. At the same time, in the village of Ryrkaypiy, Egvekinot city district, where from year to year the walrus rookery attracted dozens of polar predators, everything is still calm due to the vast ice field.

The humpback whale was first reported dead or stranded on Killisnoo Island on Feb. 10th, by Alaska Marine Highway System personnel, said Sadie Wright, a large whale entanglement response coordinator with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division. The animal with a long history in the area has been necropsied.

The Road and Coastal Administration reported record-high waves at the south coast of Iceland as a severe storm swept the county.

A winter storm caused power outages and property damage across Iceland. Winds reached speeds of 40 meters per second (89 mph) in the Southwest region, though precipitation was less than forecasted. See related article: A total of ten waves of 25 meters high and four waves over 30 meters high were recorded. A 40 m wave was the highest recorded since 1990.

These windy conditions have started to negatively impact sea ice coverage in the Bering Strait. Based on satellite imagery and observations from residents across the region, more open water has started to appear along coastlines and thicker ice has been pushed around, climatologist Rick Thoman said. He noted that sea ice conditions are drastically different in the Bering Strait than they were five days ago.