On Monday afternoon, after receiving a report of a deceased male on the Barbara Falls Trail, troopers hiked up the trail and responded to the scene. When they arrived, they found the victim, 51-year-old Kenneth Lukin dead from suspected cold weather exposure. Troopers do not believe that foul play was involved. Wildlife troopers would later […]
Jan. 23, 2021, is the 50th anniversary of Alaska’s all-time cold temperature: minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded by a weather observer at Prospect Creek Camp. Now a clearing in the woods, Prospect Creek Camp was located near the confluence of Prospect Creek and the Jim River, just north of the Arctic Circle and about 160 […]
During the darkest days of Alaska’s winter, black-capped chickadees stuff themselves with enough seeds and frozen insects to survive 18-hour nights. Where the chickadees spend those long nights was a mystery until a biologist tracked them. Susan Sharbaugh spent many winter nights trying to find out how a creature as light as a handful of […]
This message once came from the grandfather of 5-year-old Ben, who lived near Inverness, Scotland: “Even in winter he will rapidly strip off and often plays in a sleeveless vest while others still have a shirt and woolly jumper on. He appears to be always warm.” Ben, it seemed, had a remarkable tolerance for […]
An international team of scientists has found evidence connecting an unexplained period of extreme cold in ancient Rome with an unlikely source: a massive eruption of Alaska’s Okmok volcano, located on the opposite side of the Earth. Around the time of Julius Caesar’s death in 44 BCE, written sources describe a period of unusual […]
A father wakes, rolls out of bed and drops his toes to cold carpet. He grabs a flashlight and shines it outside the window. The thermometer reads 40 below zero, the only point at which the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales agree. The red liquid within his thermometer is alcohol; mercury freezes at 38 below. […]
Every Alaskan owns at least one version of a sensitive scientific instrument: the thermometer. But what is it measuring? Because hot and cold are relative terms, sometimes our senses can’t be trusted to tell us the difference. For example, a tub of ice water will feel warm if you stick your foot in it after […]
Over the past five years, winter atmospheric conditions that influence the Bering Sea have been markedly different from previous years. Strong, warm winds out of the south—sometimes lasting more than 30 days—have forced sea ice northward. Water temperatures have been warmer than normal and NOAA scientists have observed some significant changes in marine species. They […]
Findings point to molecular resemblance in climate adaptation traits of the two species, TAU researchers say A new Tel Aviv University study suggests that the genetic profiles of two extinct mammals with African ancestry — woolly mammoths, elephant-like animals that evolved in the Arctic peninsula of Eurasia around 600,000 years ago, and Neanderthals, highly skilled early […]