Two quakes shook the coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Tuesday night about 45 miles offshore of the community of Hooper Bay.
Winds gusted up to 46 mph and about 2.4 inches of rain fell from Friday to Sunday.
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.
Storms tore more land away from Napakiak’s already heavily eroded riverbank in early August. About eight feet of bank fell into the Kuskokwim River, adding to the more than 100 feet of shoreline that has already been lost this year.
This is not the first time this village has faced the threat of erosion and flooding, but relocating won’t be as easy as it was last time.
If you’re living in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta a hundred years from now, it’s going to be hot and wet, according to a new study by scientists at the International Arctic Research Center, an institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Climate change is thawing the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta’s permafrost, and it’s doing more than cracking foundations, sinking roads and accelerating erosion.
The heat wave sweeping through the N.W.T. and Yukon will have a major impact on permafrost thaw in both territories, experts warn.
Rainfall in Sitka broke records on Wednesday, and February is shaping up to exceed the month’s typical rainfall by leaps and bounds.
Some 784,931 hectares of wildfires are raging on permafrost zones including the Arctic in Yakutia - officially Sakha Republic - and the Khanty-Mansi autonomous region, causing possibly irreparable damage to the tundra. Other infernos are sweeping through boreal forests which are known as the lungs of the Northern Hemisphere.
About a year ago, Tununak opened a $19 million, state-of-the-art airport, but shifting permafrost is buckling the runway.
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.
In villages like Kongiganak, communities have stopped burying their dead because, as the permafrost melts, the oldest part of their cemetery is sinking.
Akiak City Administrator David Gilila says the village is in danger of becoming an island in the Kuskokwim River.
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