Juneau’s urban avalanche forecast describes “extreme” danger Saturday evening. Centennial Hall will open as an emergency shelter at 8 p.m. Saturday.
After the Arctic Ocean recorded its second-lowest summer ice minimum last month, conditions have grown worse across the region. Large parts of the Arctic Ocean, which historically should be covered in new sea ice by now, remain largely ice free.
Last weekend's blizzard caused the Haines Borough School District to close Monday after 16 inches of snow fell in less than 24 hours--a record high for daily snowfall according to National Weather Service data.
With millions of dollars in damage to a new health clinic and imperiled infrastructure, the borough is requesting help from the National Guard. Yakutat has seen up to 6 feet of snow in recent weeks and a rare cold snap that pushed temperatures below zero.
Auto shops are seeing more business because of damaged tires, and drivers are often inching through a messy maze of bad road conditions. Road crews are making headway but still catching up from unfavorable weather last month.
Even if a storm does hit Western Alaska, thicker sea ice will always be more resistant than last year’s ice was at this time, a climatologist says.
The snowfall came after Anchorage broke the daily record for warmest Dec. 31, with temperatures at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport measuring 46 degrees.
“It was a beautiful event that we were lucky to have survived,” Andrew Hooper said.
After being buried, the trapped hiker was able to kick his legs free. A hiker passing by spotted his feet sticking out of the snow.
Hundreds of people have combed the terrain near Big Lake, but there’s still no sign of LaVerne and Van Pettigen.
“When I first started six years ago, icebergs like this were more common,” says a tour boat captain on the lake near Anchorage.
“It started breaking into pieces beneath us,” said Phillip Rode.
Jeffrey Cheng, 33, died in the slide. One of his friends managed to hold on to a tree as waves of avalanche debris washed over his head. The third member of their group wasn’t caught.
The tragedy came after several days of dire warnings about the dangers of river travel due to an unusually early warm-up. Search and rescuers crawled onto weak ice, open water all around, to help retrieve the survivors.
“You could take your sailboat and sail from Dillingham all the way to Little Diomede and never see much more than an ice cube.
The flooding started when large chunks of ice jammed at Deneki bridge, according to an advisory issued by the National Weather Service.
La tormenta se ve en el eco del radar que mostrado antes de este tweet … la fuerte tromba caída en el sureste de #Madrid nos deja las primeras imágenes captadas en las calles de #Arganda @PadelKass donde el cielo se ha desplomado en pocos minutos … wow! #lluvia #Tormenta pic.twitter.com/ELI1LFB4sq — Mario Picazo (@picazomario) …
The pair were hoisted from 140 feet above, according to Guard officials. Flooding continues to be a concern in the area.
Climate change has allowed spotted seals to find new hunting grounds, but the marine mammals ultimately depend on sea ice to survive.
That hurts coastal communities that hunt on the ice. But colder weather may be coming, at least to some portions of Alaska. Ice should be hugging the coast near the village of Gambell, perched on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea, said Mayor Susan Apassingok, on Tuesday. But ice isn't there.
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