The harbor seals of Alaska’s Iliamna Lake, which make up one of only five freshwater seal populations in the world, have long been a subject of fascination for their separateness from the seals that swim in the nearby ocean waters. Now scientific research has confirmed something that has long been suspected: The Iliamna Lake seals, […]
When I was drinking coffee with a cab-driving-author friend of the same vintage last week, he said of my occupation: “It’s the best job in Alaska.” After a few seconds of pondering, I nodded. It has been 11,000 days since Oct. 25, 1994. That’s when I wrote my first story, a Halloween-themed piece on little […]
More needs to be done to better understand rapidly changing Arctic landscapes that are sinking as climate-driven permafrost thaw penetrates deeper, according to new research by University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists and others. International climate monitoring organizations have no uniform standard for measuring ground subsidence, leading to an underestimation of thaw depth and therefore an […]
In late January 2025, meteorologists from the National Weather Service Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland, are predicting “dangerously cold temperatures and wind chill values for much of the South and eastern U.S.” During this time when peak cold often arrives in the Northern Hemisphere, Alaska today celebrates the king-of-the-cold’s birthday. Jan. 23, 2025, is […]