For decades, Californians have depended on the reliable appearance of spring and summer snowmelt to provide nearly a third of the state's supply of water. But as the state gets drier, and as wildfires climb to ever-higher elevations, that precious snow is melting faster and earlier than in years past — even in the middle of winter.
Last week, a 908-foot Russian tanker carrying liquified natural gas passed south through the Russian side of the Bering Strait, with two more to follow. The ships are traversing the northern coast of Siberia, called the North Sea Route, in the middle of January with no icebreaker escort, an unprecedented event that may hint at the future of the region as climate change alters global commerce.
The route of the Yukon Quest traverses Lake Laberge for the first time in decades, and that's not the only dog sled race affected by the changing climate.
The Svalbard Global Seed Vault celebrates its first decade in operation by accepting its millionth sample—and a grant for work to keep those samples safe despite melting permafrost.
The area around Öræfajökull glacier continues to show increased activity as the largest earthquake detected in the area, M3,6 on the Richter scale, occurred there this morning.
Professional skier Amie Engerbretson is already noticing diminishing snow in her hometown of Lake Tahoe. She didn’t know what to do this past Thanksgiving because she couldn’t ski for the first time since she could remember. “The ski seasons are shrinking, and a lot of times the storms are coming in with more rain,” she says. “I can remember being a little girl with 19-foot snow banks in my front yard. I certainly haven't seen snow banks that high as an adult.”
Discovery prompts fear that melting ice will allow more plastic to be released back into the oceans. Traces of 17 different types of plastic were found in frozen seawater.
The snowfall in Nome over the winter didn’t break the all-time record but it came close. According to the National Weather Service, 115.5 inches of snow fell, making the winter of 2017/18 number two for snowfall since modern weather reporting began.
From Massachusetts to Virginia, the East Coast was pounded by a storm that threatened to break records. Nearly two million people lost power.
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