A fire destroyed a Peter Pan Seafoods facility in Sand Point, Alaska, causing a pervasive smell of burning plastic from fishing gear stored on-site.
A severe storm in Juneau resulted in 29.3 inches of snow at the airport, causing avalanches, road closures, and the shutdown of schools and state offices.
The slide occurred at a time when forecasters in the region are cautioning backcountry skiers and snowboarders about the potential for warming weather to increase avalanche risk.
The slides come near the end of an avalanche season experts say is notable both for its heightened danger and lack of deaths.
As the river changes and erosion happens along the banks, new channels are being formed around the community.
Traffic in Whitehorse will be difficult for anyone looking to get in and out of the city for the Easter long week after a landslide on the escarpment early Saturday morning forced a section of Robert Service Way to be closed until further notice.
A drainage culvert beneath the street failed, causing the sinkhole.
Kotzebue experienced one blizzard after another in March, and now with so much piled up and drifted snow, the community is struggling to dig out.
A boulder tumbled down the face of Mount Roberts early Wednesday, damaging one side of the Basin Road Trestle’s wooden railing and closing the road. Mattice says slides are more common in the fall, but warm, wet conditions this winter contributed to the rockfall — especially this weekend’s heavy rains.
Alaska Railroad freight train derailed early Tuesday after plowing into avalanche debris south of Girdwood. The debris spread roughly 300 feet across the tracks.
Less snow than usual fell in the area this winter. It melted early, exposing the tundra. A steady wind has dried the vegetation, and hardly any precipitation has fallen since early March. Thoman said that with no rain and abundant sunshine, the tundra has remained brown and dry. The fire still is not threatening the community of Kwethluk or any Native allotments.
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.
Kenai City Council members approved the city’s five-year capital improvement plan Wednesday
The spill followed a sudden rise in warm temperatures in recent days. Hooper Bay Mayor Sandra Hill said that the thaw and rain had melted the previously frozen land surrounding the sewage lagoon, causing a wall of the lagoon to cave.
Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.
Muldrow Glacier on the north side of Denali is surging for the first time since the 1950s — moving 50 to 100 times faster than its usual pace. The surge was first glimpsed by K2 Aviation pilot Chris Palm last month. “I was thinking it looks really difficult to get onto the glacier right now,” Palm said. “It’s all shattered and torn up and jagged ice and deep crevasses everywhere.” The event could impact mountaineers scheduled to use the north approach to the mountain .
Class 2 avalanche in Hatcher Pass closed down a section of the road between Mile 14 and 16. The nonprofit Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center warned that conditions in the area were dangerous and asked that people avoid the Archangel Road trail nearby.
Satellite and webcam views indicated low-level ash emissions from Mount Veniaminof volcano. The ash plume did not rise above 10,000 feet, the Alaska Volcano Observatory said. Minor ash deposits are visible at the volcano, located 480 miles southwest of Anchorage.
In Chefornak, a family was forced to evacuate their home because a sinkhole caused by thawing permafrost formed underneath it. That family had to move into a building intended to be a quarantine facility.
The Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities says the Taylor Highway is now closed at mile 54 because of a washout.
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