The virus was first reported among brown skua on Bird Island, off South Georgia. Since then, researchers and observers have reported mass deaths of elephant seals, as well as increased deaths of fur seals, kelp gulls and brown skua at several other sites. Researchers warn of one of ‘largest ecological disasters of modern times’ if the highly contagious disease reaches penguin colonies.
El Bosque, a Mexican fishing village with a population of 400 people, is being swallowed by rising sea levels, and experts predict that the entire village could be underwater within a year, leaving residents displaced and without adequate housing alternatives.
A mobile home washed away in severe flooding after Storm Hans hit Hemsedal, Norway, on Tuesday, 8 August. The extreme weather has battered parts of Scandinavia and the Baltics for several days. Rivers have overflown, roads have been damaged and people have been injured by falling branches.
“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.
Intense rainfall in Russia's Far East Primorye region caused floods, power outages, and evacuations, with water levels exceeding the norm by eightfold in some areas, following previous flooding caused by tropical storm Khanun.
Reports are coming in about hundreds of dead birds from Hammerfest in the west to Murmansk in the east. A zone with a radius of five kilometers is closed and guards are in place round-the-clock.
An observer reports unusual sightings of Sabine's gulls, including juveniles, outside their typical migration period, suggesting a potential new breeding colony near Nome.
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.
A severe winter storm has led to a state of emergency in Sakhalin, Russia, disrupting transportation and daily life. The storm paralyzed the public transportation system in the regional capital of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, and major roadways were made inaccessible.
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.
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).
A localized round of heavy rain has wreaked havoc on the St. Johnsbury, Vermont, area, washing out some roads and damaging homes. This same area was hit hard with flooding just 19 days prior as the remnants of Beryl crossed North America. About two dozen rescues took place during the latest round of flooding and officials warned that the impacts could worsen as creeks rise further or more rain arrives.
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.
A research vessel, Norseman II, was trapped in unusually dense sea ice for 14 days off the Seward Peninsula coast during a Pacific walrus study, but is now en route to Nome for repairs.
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