Orthione griffenis, or O. griffenis, eventually kills its host shrimp, and soon the remaining shrimp can’t find each other to reproduce, rendering a blue mud shrimp population extinct.

Kwigillingok, a community on the Bering Sea coast of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, is used to some flooding during high tides. But in recent years, that flooding has grown more severe, reaching a new threshold last week.

The novel virus has only affected two people, both in Fairbanks. The "Alaskapox" was first identified in 2015 after a Fairbanks woman sought medical attention for a small skin lesion, pained fever and fatigue. In August, a second Fairbanks woman with no known connection to the first was found to have the virus. Scientists suspect both women may have gotten the virus from contact with small wild animals.

Officials have been receiving reports of Steller sea lions hauling out on beaches in poor condition, but have been unable to retrieve the animals for research — largely because they are in remote areas.

In an unusual event, a pair of beluga whales swam about 60 miles up the Kuskokwim River to Bethel. After word got out, boaters pursued the belugas and took at least one of them. Now, an official is working to collect samples of the animal to better understand where it came from.

Carmichael pointed to a tree that fell across one of the riverside campground spots, taking out a fence. There’s another on the opposite side of the path, branches strewn across an open patch of snow. They’re among the 1,000 high-priority trees the city wants to remove due to safety concerns.

Temperatures might be down in Kodiak, but that doesn’t mean bear problems are down too. Fish & Game has tracked down and shot three problem bears in town over the last week, and they’re reminding residents — not all bears hibernate in the winter.

This has become the new norm across the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Late winters and sudden thawing have turned roads into slush and made rivers and sloughs, which are necessary for travel, less safe because they take longer to freeze.

Last summer’s unusually warm weather fueled an explosion in the western blackheaded budworm, leaving masses of browning trees in many areas of Southeast. The worm, which is the larval stage of the budworm moth, is known to feed on the new growth of trees, leaving them with a brownish-red appearance.

There were 4,500 lightning strikes in Alaska Tuesday — the latest in a run of days with thousands of ground strikes. There were also another 13 new, primarily lightning sparked wildfires in the state Tuesday, mostly in the Interior. The lightning storms have coincided with very dry conditions.

It's cold. And those frigid temperatures aren't going away anytime soon. The cold has set in across most of Alaska and set daily record lows in places like Homer, King Salmon and Bethel. It's relatively early to be seeing such cold.

Extreme winds and cold temperatures have affected the areas. At one point over the weekend, 20,000 households in Mat-Su lost power. 

“Whatever led up to the situation where all the sudden we don't have any fuel in the dead of winter, and with all these storms coming through, is beyond me,” said St. George resident Victor Malavansky. “I would like to say this is totally unacceptable.”

Costco customers in Anchorage have recently started sharing online reports of ravens stealing groceries from their carts and the back of their pickup trucks, and biologists say the behavior could spread around town quickly.

The fire also comes as the state of Alaska enters its second highest level of fire preparedness, based on the high number of wildfires burning statewide and the possibility for more.

Biologist Jessica Crance witnessed both sightings personally, and is among a handful of living people who have seen one of this population of right whales up close since the species was devastated by commercial whaling.

Three volcanoes are erupting across the Aleutian Range — Great Sitkin and Semisopochnoi in the Aleutian Islands and Pavlof Volcano on the Alaska Peninsula.

The bear had entered buildings and food caches, according to National Park Service officials.

Current sea ice extent in Northern Alaska waters is the highest it’s been since November 2001.

Snow blanketed parts of Alaska’s largest city Tuesday morning, as Anchorage saw an early, though unofficial, first snowfall of the season. It's technically unofficial because none was reported at the National Weather Service’s official measuring spot on the city’s west side.