Photo: An atmospheric river that transported immense amounts of water vapor from the tropics to Southcentral Alaska in November 2018. NOAA image Nome, August 2019: More than 2 inches of rainfall falls in one day, setting a new record. Thompson Pass, December 2017: 1.7 inches of snow piles up in 10 minutes. Seven feet of […]
Northeast Alaska’s Yukon Flats region, seen with fall colors.David Butman/University of Washington The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. One consequence of that trend is the thawing of permafrost, a layer of earth that has remained frozen for thousands of years in some areas. This frozen soil and vegetation […]
[dropcap]C[/dropcap]hildren in Alaska whose diet includes a lot of fish from rivers fed by the Eastern Alaska Mountain Range may have a long-term elevated risk for cancer because of insecticides — including DDT — in the meltwater. Even with low levels of organochlorine pollutants (OCPs) in glacial meltwater, the risk of cancer for youth […]
On the upper Chena River in the heart of a cold winter, a songbird appeared on a gravel bar next to gurgling water that somehow remained unfrozen in 20-below zero air. Then the bird jumped in, disappeared underwater, and popped up a few feet upstream. The bird continued snorkeling against the current of the stream, […]