Juneau’s urban avalanche forecast describes “extreme” danger Saturday evening. Centennial Hall will open as an emergency shelter at 8 p.m. Saturday.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The snowfall came after Anchorage broke the daily record for warmest Dec. 31, with temperatures at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport measuring 46 degrees.
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.
“It was a beautiful event that we were lucky to have survived,” Andrew Hooper said.
“When I first started six years ago, icebergs like this were more common,” says a tour boat captain on the lake near Anchorage.
Hundreds of people have combed the terrain near Big Lake, but there’s still no sign of LaVerne and Van Pettigen.
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.
“It started breaking into pieces beneath us,” said Phillip Rode.
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.
The pair were hoisted from 140 feet above, according to Guard officials. Flooding continues to be a concern in the area.
A total of 14.7 inches of snow fell between 8 p.m. Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday, barely eclipsing the previous record for the date of 14.6 inches, set in 1970.
The lodge at above 3,000 feet altitude on the Glenn Highway measured 6 to 8 inches of snow as of Monday morning -- and it was still falling.
Climate change has allowed spotted seals to find new hunting grounds, but the marine mammals ultimately depend on sea ice to survive.
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