Background Articles

A Pictou County farmer reports that many crops have failed after an irrigation pond and well dried up amid a prolonged dry spell, costing producers thousands in lost sales.

A UNBC study finds glaciers feeding the Slave River watershed are melting twice as fast as a decade ago, contributing to record low water levels in Northwest Territories rivers, while GNWT officials expect short-term stability from snowmelt and summer rains.

British Columbia’s March snowpack averaged just 79 percent of normal, up from 63 percent a year ago but still low enough to raise the province’s drought risk for spring and summer.

A Unesco report warns that unprecedented glacier melt driven by the climate crisis threatens the food and water supply for two billion people worldwide, with major impacts on irrigated agriculture and mountain communities.

What a virtually snowless winter and early spring means for flower beds, car and ski trail maintenance, recreators, snowplowers and pooper scoopers in Anchorage.

Scant snow is giving way to shaggy brown grass normally not seen until spring breakup, raising concerns now that conditions are increasingly ripe for a fast-moving fire at a time of year usually deep in the grip of winter.

Snow-dependent businesses in Anchorage are struggling as an unusually dry winter with record low snowfall forces snow removal and outdoor gear companies to scale back operations.

“It’s out of the ordinary but nothing that’s unprecedented,” according to Arctic Valley Ski Area general manager John Robinson-Wilson.