LEO Network

About the LEO Network
The LEO Network is a worldwide network of observers and experts that share their observations of environmental change.
Continue

Observations

Monitoring underway at N.W.T. archaeological sites threatened by climate change
As the impacts of climate change threaten vital historical sites across the Northwest Territories, the territory's climate change archaeologist is working with communities to mitigate the damage.
Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, Canada
CBC

Dozens of Newtok students attend classes in a school that’s coming apart
Rapid erosion and permafrost degradation mean school district officials are in a race to shore up the building for the remainder of the school year.
Newtok, Alaska, United States
KYUK

Little Diomede city building slides off its foundation, leaving community vulnerable for more damage
A city building in Little Diomede, Alaska, slid off its foundation, threatening the structural integrity of adjacent buildings and critical services, with the community seeking immediate assistance.
Diomede, Alaska, United States
The Nome Nugget

Storm erodes shoreline at Shishmaref
A storm caused shoreline erosion in Shishmaref, Alaska, but no evacuations were needed as the new seawall held and damage was minimal.
Nome, Alaska, United States
The Nome Nugget

Storm erodes shoreline at Shishmaref
High winds that pushed water high up on south facing shores of the Seward Peninsula cause shoreline erosion on the Chukchi Sea coast of Shishmaref, last week.
Shishmaref, Alaska, United States
The Nome Nugget

Later frosts could make new crops possible in Alaska, but climate change brings challenges, too
Shifting seasons and hotter temperatures could allow Alaska farmers to grow more abundant and diverse produce. But climate change can also bring drought, pests and permafrost thaw.  Human-caused climate change is bringing longer and warmer growing seasons, but also pests and unstable weather.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
KTOO

Permafrost slump near Alaska Highway in Yukon eats up 13 more metres of land
The slump is so close to the Alaska Highway, the Yukon government is moving the road, creating a new section that will help protect the only year-round road linking parts of the Yukon, and the U.S. state of Alaska, to the rest of the continent.
Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada
CBC

A year after the Merbok Storm: Impacts on Cemetery
The Merbok storm of 2022 impacted the Old Russian Cemetery in Saint Michael. This cemetery was created in the 1830s when the northernmost outpost of the Russian American Company was established in that village. People were interred in that cemetery for about 100 years. The cemetery is on a 30 foot high bluff overlooking the bay.
St. Michael, Alaska, United States
Anahma Shannon, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Tom Wolforth, Darlene Chiskok, Racheal Lee, Michelle Snowball, Max Neale, James Benzschawel

Protecting roads and water infrastructure from erosion
River erosion is impacting the road and requiring the replacement of health infrastructure.
Huslia, Alaska, United States
Lucy Snyder, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Max Neale

DOT to evaluate cracks on Kivalina evacuation road
Kivalina residents report cracks on the sides of the recently built evacuation road which connects the village to the storm refuge site and the school. The team with the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities plans to visit the village and assess the damages at the end of August.
Kivalina, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

July was Utqiaġvik’s warmest month in the past century
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.
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Huge landslide misses Swiss mountain village of Brienz ‘by a hair’
Rockfall buries access road but stops just in front of hamlet, which had been evacuated in anticipation.
Brienz, Bern, Switzerland
the Guardian

Erosion Impacting Vegetation and Roads
This post is an update on the river erosion situation in Noatak, where a new channel is being cut by the Noatak River.
Noatak, Alaska, United States
Jeffrey Luther, Max Neale, Crane Johnson, Anna Liljedahl

Sinking in
The community of Aklavik, N.W.T., persevered when devastating floods led the government to attempt to relocate it. Now it faces another existential crisis as climate change thaws the permafrost, forever changing the community’s landscape and wildlife.
Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Canada
CBC

Alaska’s Arctic Waterways Are Turning a Foreboding Orange
Increase in sediments such as iron could change quality of water sources for local communities such as Kobuk and Kivalina. The impact on animals and plants are unknown and researchers are aware of potential changes in the food web in the future.
Brooks Range, Alaska, United States
WIRED

Thawing causing cemetery to sink
Permafrost thaw in Noatak is causing the condition of the grave site to degrade. A trench has formed and crosses are tipping over.
Noatak, Alaska, United States
Jeffrey Luther, Joanna Barton, Vladimir Romanovsky, Tom Wolforth

After September storm, Newtok residents are desperate to relocate
Melting permafrost and severe erosion have plagued the community for decades. The most recent storm brought waves so fierce, the water claimed roughly half of the 80 or so remaining feet of land that stands between the back end of the school and the edge of the Ningliq river.
Newtok, Alaska, United States
KYUK

Slide buries highway, strands residents
Two heavy rainstorms caused flooding and landslides in the upper valley last week, damaging infrastructure and leaving two residents temporarily trapped in their vehicle.
Haines, Alaska, United States
Chilkat Valley News

Severe Erosion in Newtok
A site visit to Newtok on September 30, shows severe erosion from impacts of storm (typhoon Merbok). The images show both severe permafrost melt and river erosion.
Newtok, Alaska, United States

Alaska's newest lakes are belching methane
Permafrost is ground that stays frozen year round; the permafrost in interior Alaska also has massive wedges of actual ice locked within the frozen ground. When that ice melts, the ground surface collapses and forms a sinkhole that can fill with water. Thus, a thermokarst lake is born. At first glance, Big Trail looks like any lake. But look closer and there's something disturbing the surface: bubbles.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
Phys.org

Storm Merbok causes erosion to cemetary
The erosion of the Old Russian Cemetery from the impacts of the storm Merbokis also an unfinished process. The earth is actively moving, falling onto the beach bit by bit and sometimes in large chunks every day, to reach a state of stabilization after the storm.
St. Michael, Alaska, United States
Tom Wolforth, Michelle Snowball, Darlene Chiskok

Up river effect from Typhoon Merbok
The heavy rains and high water from storm Murdok today and Monday are contributing to the erosion of the old landfill and river bank.
Noatak, Alaska, United States
Richard L Thoman Jr, Jeffrey Luther, Joy Britt

Storm unearths ancient tusks
The aftermath of Typhoon Merbok left fuel tanks floating and home flooded, but locals also saw an opportunity.

Along Utqiaġvik’s eroding coast, hope that a seawall can help keep the community safe
In Utqiaġvik, where the coast is eroding at some of the fastest rates in the nation, storms, flooding and thawing permafrost damage houses, roads and cultural sites. Ice forms later each year and storms are becoming longer and more severe.
Utqiaġvik, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Over 24 hours, Harry Potter Lake pulls a disappearing act on Alaska’s North Slope
Drained lake basins make up more than half of the Arctic coastal plain, but the complete drainage of a lake is rarely witnessed by people.
Nuiqsut, Alaska, United States

Sudden lake draining event
"The event occurred on June 29th, on our native allotment near Kotzebue (Illivak). We left home in the morning and when we came back around 8:00 PM in the evening the whole lake had drained! It looked like it was blown up with dynamite."
Kotzebue, Alaska, United States
Ken Tape, Richard L Thoman Jr, Gemini , Guido Grosse, Susan Tessier, Benjamin Jones, Anna Liljedahl , Vladimir Romanovsky, Jacqualine Schaeffer, Joanna Barton, Ingmar Nitze, Bruce Forbes

30,000-year-old mummified baby mammoth found in Canada’s Yukon permafrost
On June 21, 2022, when miners working on Eureka Creek in the Klondike gold fields within Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory made an astonishing discovery.There, covered over by permafrost, they found the near-perfect mummified remains of a baby woolly mammoth.
Moosehide Creek, Yukon, Canada
SyFy

River erosion threatening old dump site
Community gravel source and old dump site threated by erosion.
Joy Britt, Kayla Nay, Sarah Durand, James Benzschawel, Jeffrey Luther, Erin Nelson, Desirae Mack, Joanna Barton

Support

Observation Template