Nome's landscape is physically altered, with raw material scattered wildly, the coastline reconfigured, and camps that anchored generations of subsistence either flattened or gone.

The storm could have threatened the town’s winter subsistence stock if not for the work of local power plant operators.

Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.

Shaktoolik has lost its berm to the storm that’s hammered Western Alaska over the weekend, according to Mayor Lars Sookiayak. The berm was all that protected the small village from the sea. “It really saved us from the first hit that came in this morning,” one resident said. 

The nearly 3.5 inches at the city’s official monitoring station was a daily record – the most rain that’s fallen on January 21st ever – and also a monthly record – the most rain that has ever fallen in January.

Strong winds whipped across Ketchikan Thursday evening and Friday morning, and a strong morning gust snapped power lines and severed Ketchikan’s connection to the Swan Lake hydropower reservoir.

Westfall thanked his training with the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association to help him maximize his odds for survival.

This orca born in 2018 is called Tl’uk, a Coast Salish word for “moon.” Tl’uk is a greyish moon color, without the typical black and white pattern.

A group that monitors shellfish toxin levels is warning Juneau residents not to consume shellfish from locations in the Auke Bay area.

State biologists completed an annual survey of the Innoko-Yukon River wood bison population earlier this summer, and they say the results show the animals are doing well six years after a seed group of bison was released in the area.

Dead crowns in the canopy and rusty-colored branches are woven in with the otherwise healthy, green temperate rainforest. About a third of the trees around here were hit by the voracious sawfly. The larvae get mistaken for caterpillars. Adults are a kind of non-stinging wasp, a little smaller than a pinky finger.

The numbers aren’t quite up to where they used to be, but Chris Gabriel, a biologist with the park service, expects the population to stay healthy — as long as ocean conditions stay stable.

The record was driven in part by a heavy rainstorm that set Kotzebue's single-day precipitation record.

On Tuesday night, the state of Alaska saw thousands of lightning strikes. “Most of the 3,800 lightning strikes were concentrated in the Northwest Arctic,” said BLM Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. There are several communities in close proximity to new fires.

High winds, flooding and landslides caused moderate to severe damage in communities across Southeast Alaska Wednesday, as an atmospheric river stalled over the region and brought record-breaking rain.

A disaster declaration could make the fishery eligible for federal relief funds, although who specifically would receive money would be figured out later. 

Thawing permafrost is warping water and sewer lines. Along the coast and rivers, erosion is threatening the lakes that communities use for drinking water or the lagoons where they dump sewage.

There are plenty of seals in Unalaska, but ringed seals -- who make their homes on the ice -- are rare.

Juneau resident James Wycoff noticed on his regular walks to Nugget Falls that the face of the glacier seemed to be retreating faster this year than he’s ever seen before. The Mendenhall Glacier’s terminus retreated more than 800 feet.

Last week, social media across Western Alaska lit up as residents posted photos and videos of open water where, normally, there's ice.