Major changes with the environment are creating trail hazards, an official said. The ceremonial start for 74 sled-dog teams will remain in Anchorage on March 4.
Four teams had scratched as of 7 p.m. Saturday because of the icy conditions, said Kuskokwim 300 race director Madelene Reichard. "It's the same thing for all of them," Reichard said. "The dogs aren't used to running on the ice, and people were wanting to keep their dogs healthy."
A borough employee who went to measure ice at Chena Lake got first-hand evidence that the lake ice ready for vehicles. “Lo and behold, there was a truck upside down on the bottom in about 25 feet of water,” Haas said. “No one was in it.”
Permafrost underneath the structure is believed to have melted since last fall and key parts of the building might not be able to withstand strong winds or an earthquake, according to a professional engineer hired by Dawson City.
Climate change has allowed spotted seals to find new hunting grounds, but the marine mammals ultimately depend on sea ice to survive.
Hundreds of people have combed the terrain near Big Lake, but there’s still no sign of LaVerne and Van Pettigen.
Danny Foster and Mike Hawley of Kivalina were ice fishing outside of town when they came upon something they’d never seen before. Incidentally, similar ice balls or ice eggs were reported on an ocean beach in Finland on the same day.
Scattered power outages were reported this morning, and as the wind began picking up early this afternoon, more are expected. As of 9 a.m., unofficial measurements showed more than 19 inches of snow on Old Murphy Dome Road, 14 inches in Goldstream and almost a foot in Two Rivers. The official measurement on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus was 12.4 inches.
For skiers and snowboarders looking for snowy fun within designated ski areas in Alaska, some spots have already extended their seasons.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory for Kenai Lake and the Kenai River near Cooper Landing.
A new study quantifies the rate at which Eklutna Glacier is losing its icy mass. Between 1957 and 2010, the loss of glacier mass averaged 5 percent a year.
It's possible the trio’s canoe was upset by a calving, or shedding, piece of ice. Although all three were wearing life jackets, none was wearing a wetsuit to protect against the frigid water.
Drought levels have been raised already for parts of the province and Dave Campbell, with the B.C. River Forecast Centre, says the current forecast points to drought conditions provincewide in the coming weeks.
Alvin Williams was reported missing on May 2. His body was found Sunday, troopers said.
The incident appears similar to an oil and gas release in 2017 blamed on thawing permafrost and hot production fluids.
That hurts coastal communities that hunt on the ice. But colder weather may be coming, at least to some portions of Alaska. Ice should be hugging the coast near the village of Gambell, perched on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, said Mayor Susan Apassingok, on Tuesday. But ice isn't there.
Because ice makes up a good portion of the underground foundation of northern Alaska, thawing has dropped the landscape as much as 3 feet in some places.
More than two weeks after the area typically opens for snowmachiners, the pass remained closed Tuesday as lower elevations continued to see below-average snow levels.
Even if a storm does hit Western Alaska, thicker sea ice will always be more resistant than last year’s ice was at this time, a climatologist says.
The snowfall came after Anchorage broke the daily record for warmest Dec. 31, with temperatures at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport measuring 46 degrees.
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