LEO Network

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

Just before Independence Day holiday, Anchorage beats heat record
Anchorage hit 80 degrees Tuesday night, beating a record set in 1979, according to the National Weather Service.
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Rock slides prompt intermittent closures of Seward Highway south of Anchorage
Rockfall along the Seward Highway near Beluga Point has been happening since wind and rain battered the area earlier this week.
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Fort St. John tornado event confirmed
Environment Canada is confirming a weak tornado that hit Fort St. John last month. The tornado was generated by a severe thunderstorm Aug.
Fort St. John, British Columbia, Canada
Alaska Highway News

Sargassum hits Belize hard
For the fifth consecutive year, influxes of sargassum seaweed have begun piling up on beachfronts in major tourist destinations in Belize.
Placencia, Stann Creek, Belize
Breaking Belize News

Coronavirus cases surge in Nunavik: Puvirnituq confirms 10th case
The community has the medical supplies it currently requires but, like many other remote or isolated communities, overcrowding makes dealing with an outbreak difficult.
Puvirnituq, Quebec, Canada
APTN News

Woman gets surprise bite while using outhouse
When he heard something had bitten his sister, Erik Stevens grabbed a light and went to investigate. "I shined the headlamp and opened the lid, and right there at the level of the toilet seat was a cinnamon-colored bear face, big enough to fill the hole."
Haines, Alaska, United States
Chilkat Valley News

Heavy rain causes flooding, mudslides in Juneau
Areas of the Southeast Alaska city “received between 3 and 7 inches of rain” in 24 hours over the weekend. The sodden ground caused mudslides in some areas, and wrecked roads and ditches around John Street and Peters Lane in Douglas.
Juneau, Alaska, United States
Anchorage Daily News

Chilkat sockeye, coho, chum runs appear low compared to past years
So far, the department has counted just under 37,000 fish at the Chilkat weir, well below the 10-year average of 80,000 fish. Zeiser said at this point in the season, it’s doubtful the run will hit the escapement range of 70,000 to 150,000 fish.
Haines, Alaska, United States
Chilkat Valley News

A nightmare trip, how drivers handled the mud on the Mackenzie Valley winter road
One of the main winter highways in the Northwest Territories turned into a swamp this week following unseasonably high temperatures.
Mackenzie Valley
CBC

Polar bears in Churchill face bleak future, researchers warn
Shorter periods of sea ice on Hudson Bay as a result of climate change translate into fewer polar bears in Churchill region.
Churchill Falls, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
CBC News

Rare flock of birds spotted in Oak Bay
Lesser Goldfinch birds were seen munching on local greenery
Oak Bay, British Columbia, Canada
Victoria News

Mysterious glowing spiral in the sky over Alaska draws questions, and a simple explanation
Anchorage-based photographer saw something wild — a sudden, bright light on the northern horizon that quickly started to take on a spiral shape as it drew nearer. The spiral “appears to be rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 about three hours earlier in California.”
Alaska, United States
Alaska Public Media

Wind storm beaches boats, causes power outage
A wind storm last weekend toppled a tree on Beach Road and broke lines on boats in Letnikof Cove, sending one boat owner into the frigid and wavy
Haines, Alaska, United States
Chilkat Valley News

Rapid release of water from glacier-dammed lake prompts Kenai flood advisory
The National Weather Service has issued a flood advisory for Kenai Lake and the Kenai River near Cooper Landing.
Cooper Landing, Alaska, United States

Pine foliage disease apparently slowing
A foliage disease epidemic that killed shore pines near 10 Mile and other areas around Haines appears to have subsided, according to a U.S. Forest

Body of Ambler snowmachiner recovered from Kobuk River
Alvin Williams was reported missing on May 2. His body was found Sunday, troopers said.
Ambler, Alaska, United States

Two die shoveling snow; those with cardiac risks advised to 'just let your driveway fill up with snow'
An "extreme" lake-effect storm that dumped 77 inches in Orchard Park has left the Buffalo metro area, but forecasters from the National Weather Service warn that blowing snow on Sunday could make travel difficult.The storm turned deadly for a couple of men who died of heart attacks while clearing snow. "It can be very, very dangerous for some individuals, people who have high blood pressure, people who have any type of cardiac history, to go out and shovel the snow, especially right now, because the snow is so heavy," said Burstein.
Orchard Park, New York, United States
Buffalo News

Soybeans flourish in thawing permafrost
In the vast plains that blanket much of northern Russia a once-unthinkable business is taking hold – soybean farming. It’s the result of years of increasing global temperatures, which are thawing the permafrost and turning the land into fertile soil.
Зарайск, Зарайский район, Moscow, Russia
The Anniston Star

Tsunami warning canceled for swath of coastal Alaska after 7.8 earthquake prompts evacuations
People in Kodiak, Homer and Sand Point were among those who headed to higher ground after the quake prompted a tsunami warning from the Alaska Peninsula to the western Kenai Peninsula.
Chignik, Alaska, United States

Blanket of fog envelops Anchorage
A heavy fog that rolled into Anchorage in time for Halloween is expected to persist into Thursday afternoon.
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
Alaska Dispatch News

Roof of vacant, condemned Anchorage warehouse partially collapses under snow load
The warehouse at 4640 Gambell St. damaged Wednesday is owned by Marten Martensen, the primary owner of the Continental Auto Group in Anchorage. He was part of a group that purchased the property in October 2022 and briefly used it to store around 10,000 tires until last December’s successive snowstorms caused the structure to begin collapsing.
Alaska Public Media

Anchorage hits an official 90 degrees for the first time on record
There’s little relief from the daytime heat in the forecast for the rest of the holiday weekend.

Sargassum seaweed forces closure of St. James’s Club in Antigua
St. James Club, Saint John, Antigua and Barbuda
St. Lucia News Online

Wolverines are discovered in unexpected corners
By the early 1900s, trapping and poisoning had killed off most wolverines in the Lower 48, and today, fewer than 300 remain, mostly in Washington,...
Wind River range
Durango Herald

Erratic weather bursts fuel line on Young Road
Homeowner Bart Henderson headed back to Haines from Mexico after a fuel-feed line from a heating oil tank to a furnace burst and potentially leaked. “We’ve got a pretty good idea that the cause of the leak was from the hard freeze and then the warm weather,” Pikul said. “There was some frost heaving of the ground and it compromised the feed line.”

Skin freezing temperatures in Rankin Inlet close schools
The extreme cold is about 15 degrees colder than what is normal for this time of the year in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. 'I don't remember the last time we actually closed due to weather. This is a bit of an extreme'
Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, Canada
CBC News

Rare, ‘weird-looking’ 70-pound frozen fish washes ashore in Haines
As the tide ebbed down the beach outside his house Friday, Harry Rietze discovered a mysterious sea creature that one scientific paper described as a puzzling fish with soft bones.

Scientists baffled over hundreds of fish 'spinning and whirling' dead onto South Florida shores
Scientists are puzzled over what is causing hundreds of fish to wash up dead in South Florida, including an endangered species native to the region.
Everglades
ABC News

Bald eagle stabbed in heart by loon
It had to be one of the strangest cases of eagle death that Danielle D'Auria has ever seen.
Highland Lake, Bridgton, Maine, United States
UnionLeader.com

Local finds giant puffball mushroom
What is 30 lbs, 26 inches around and white all over? Your next meal, or ten meals, or twenty.   Calvatia gigantea, or giant puffballs, typically ranges from the size of a mini marshmallow to a soccer ball. The largest record of a giant puffball had a circumference of eight feet & eight inches and weighed 48 lbs.

Crabbers catch fewer crab, see lower price
Summer commercial Dungeness crabbing was well below average in Lynn Canal, with fishermen hauling in an estimated 105,000 pounds this year compared

Birch trees and bird vetch prompt slew of questions in Interior Alaska
There has been an outbreak in Fairbanks of the amber-marked birch leaf miner (Profenusa thomsoni), an insect that came to North America in the early 1900s and arrived in Fairbanks by about 2002.
Fairbanks, Alaska, United States
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Steven Seefeldt / Cooperative Extension Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

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