Posts Near Utqiaġvik Map Timeline

Alaska's North Slope experienced unprecedented heat with temperatures nearing 90 degrees, alongside the state's wettest July and other climate impacts.

The storm brought winds up to 40 mph to communities from Wainwright to Kaktovik, weather officials said. High waves damaged a road in Utqiagvik, affecting around five houses, residents reported.

About five beluga carcasses were left at the NARL Boat Dock on Aug. 8, causing smell and potential wildlife hazard in the area. The bones were cleaned the same day but the city reminded residents they can get help with cleanup after susbsitence hunting.

The average temperature in July was 48.4 degrees — 6.7 degrees above normal, with 11 hot days in a row. Such extreme warmth can accelerate the greening and permafrost thaw on the North Slope.

A wayward walrus calf, just one month old, was rescued from the North Slope. Workers on the North Slope spotted the baby walrus on tundra, about four miles inland from the Beaufort Sea.

Officials are still examining the substance in a lab to determine what it is, but DEC suspects it’s black tar or asphalt.

Alaska Department of Fish and Game records show two other unusually wayward moose hunts: One in 2016 taken north of Teshekpuk Lake along the Arctic coast, and another in 2014 on the Kokolik River near Point Lay.

“People assume that we’re entering this new Arctic, when in reality we have faced adversity for thousands of years. We’ve always been able to adapt and be resilient.

When temperatures soar this high above the Arctic Circle, it’s an attention-grabber.

Unusual Stellar sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) sighting in Utqiaġvik.

It’s well established that Arctic ice is changing in dramatic ways. As the climate warms, ice coverage is decreasing, the amount of multiyear ice has gone down significantly and in

"These ridges that we’re standing on, there would have been more of them, and they would have been bigger," ice researcher Andy Mahoney said. "The features that we now see, they’re something of a shadow from the past." Listen now

Thanks to warming winters and thawing permafrost, Arctic soil microbes are churning out carbon dioxide well after the end of the growing season ends. This extra source of atmospheric carbon may accelerate a regional warming trend that is already twice as fast as the global average.

6-26-13 Risky ice conditions for whaling - Barrow, Alaska, USA

6-5-13 Risky ice for whaling - Barrow, Alaska, USA

8-24-12 Lynx in high Arctic - Barrow, Alaska, USA