The warm winter has made traveling on the river ice more hazardous than Bethel Search and Rescue ever remembers.

Due to consistent above average winter temperatures, there are many known and developing open holes on the river. I was on the trail working at the Bogus Creek Checkpoint. Most of the trail had no snow cover, and the majority of the race was run on glare ice over the tundra.

We've had so much wind this winter, on the 15th of January, the winds were warm!!!!!!

Mid-January robin sighting in Chuathbaluk.

Homeowner Bart Henderson headed back to Haines from Mexico after a fuel-feed line from a heating oil tank to a furnace burst and potentially leaked. “We’ve got a pretty good idea that the cause of the leak was from the hard freeze and then the warm weather,” Pikul said. “There was some frost heaving of the ground and it compromised the feed line.”

Northern Lampfish washed up along the beach at Letnikov Cove

Rough seas and moving sea ice.

It seems like digging out from snow and some more snow is all Nomeites do this winter.

Without ice to provide protection from storm waves, Port Heiden has lost the old town road.

Above normal than average seal strandings in the Aleutians.

The Kuskokwim River now has its longest ice road ever, despite having the warmest winter on record.

Warmer winter temperatures are bringing Arctic Ground Squirrels out of hibernation

Muscle tapeworm cysts in caribou meat.

Walrus in Bristol Bay and Port Heiden are not uncommon in summer. The fact they are present in April is unusual and residents believe factors such as the lack of sea ice, lack of food and warming ocean temperatures may be the reason.

The walrus count at this location was approximately 500-1000, and looks like they are here to stay well at least for this season of time before they return to the north.

Looking seaward over the last week from almost all points along the coasts of Norton Sound, folks have been dazzled by bright blue horizons colored by open water.

We have over two weeks of cold windy weather. It started in mid April around the time of the big wind storm. And in relation of the wind storm on April 24th, Rick Thoman wrote: "Winds this strong in the Anchorage are rare at this time of year. An unusually strong storm for the season in the southeastern Bering Sea produced southeast strong winds blowing across the Chugach Mountains. However, being April, the temperature profile of the atmosphere close to the ground was more conducive than in winter for allowing the very strong winds aloft to reach down to the ground.

Ross's Gulls are normally seen in the high Arctic, this is the first reported sighting in Togiak. A similar sighting was reported to LEO Network from Hooper Bay.

Spiders possibly wolf spiders of family (Lycosidae) numbering some 75 to 100 were seen on top of snow along Boulder Creek road and lagoon.

Possible wolf spider seen in Teller

At Cold Bay, snow was reported on five days during the month, the most for any May since 2013.

Smelt caught in Bethel with fungal infection previously found in the Norton Sound region.

A tundra fire that has grown to 2,000 acres as of Monday afternoon is burning near Point Hope, officials say. 

Summer slowly arrived in Alaska this month, but if you live in Glennallen, you may be having very different emotions regarding June weather.

Second Noctiluca bloom we have had in the last 4 weeks

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae ("Movi") is a respiratory bacterium that can cause disease in susceptible hosts. Previously thought to be host-restricted to sheep and goat species, scientists have identified Movi for the first time in healthy moose and caribou in Alaska; a bison in Montana; mule deer in New Mexico, and diseased white-tailed deer from the upper Midwest.

Wildfire smoke visible in Unalakleet.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game issued an emergency order Wednesday closing the personal-use and sport fishing for Copper River sockeye around Chitina until further notice. It goes into effect on Monday, June 18th.

Sockeye are smaller in size and fewer in number this year than in recent years.

Sooty Shearwater (Ardenna grisea) found in the bay near Platinum, slightly north of usual species range.

A rare sighting near the confluence of the Russian River.

Anchorage hit 80 degrees Tuesday night, beating a record set in 1979, according to the National Weather Service.

Unusual dark coloration in Sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) meat

Regional monitoring program notifies shellfish harvesters of an upward trend in concentrations of PSP.

Ocean water has a green tint near Craig and Klawock, Alaska.

Residents of Chevak and Hooper Bay found two species of sea bird either dead or approachable near the mouth of the Kiuqliiviq and Aprun rivers near fish camps. Residents of Hooper Bay also found a dead sea mammal on the beach.

Billie Shraffenberger is a longtime resident of Port Heiden. This is the first time she has caught a fish like the one she found in her subsistence salmon net this summer.

Slow sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) runs in the Aleutians potentially linked to warming ocean temperatures.

Southeast Alaska has dropped into drought conditions off and on for the past two or more years. Spring rains and snow melt helped refill lakes and reservoirs but a dry, hot July pushed the southern Panhandle into a deeper deficit.

Carcasses examined so far have shown no indication of disease, and tests are pending for harmful algal toxins. Seabirds have been found emaciated and starved, and changed ocean conditions may have affected prey.

The “thermal curtain” is another expression for “cold pool” that acts as a barrier to keep some species—pollock and Pacific cod, for example — from migrating across the eastern Bering Sea shelf and northward toward the Bering Strait. For the first time in 37 years of surveying the Bering Sea, we could not find the cold water barrier.

Fewer wasp and mosquito interactions in Anchorage in 2018 than typical.

Unusual Stellar sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) sighting in Utqiaġvik.

Days of rain have triggered flooding in Cordova and slowed drivers on the Taylor Highway and McCarthy Road.

The spruce along the highway between mile 157 and 162 show signs of stress, the tips of the branches are orangish and the deep green of the trees are fading.

Thawing and eroding is destroying river bank, impacting access, threatening infrastructure, and causing safety concerns.

Unusually warm September temperatures.

Prickly rose plant is blooming when others have gone to hips.

Bald eagle feeds on seagull

The Tongass Forest in southeast Alaska, a temperate rain forest, is experiencing record-low precipitation and severe drought conditions, impacting community hydroelectricity production.

The Arctic’s like an air conditioner or refrigerator for the global climate...And as the Arctic warms, partly because the sea ice is going away, it’s like you’re opening that refrigerator door.

Squid are becoming more common on the shoreline over the past few years.

With Halloween just over a week out, Fairbanks is looking at the potential of a third straight year with minimal snow cover, and a possible first ever green Halloween.

Gray Catbird found northwest of its normal range.

The skin lesion in the photo is likely caused by a stress-related bacterial infection – possibly trauma initiated. Probably common opportunistic bacteria in the environment such as motile Pseudomonas/Aeromonas Gram-negative organisms.

Spruce beetles damaged nearly 600,000 acres of forest in 2018, and the damage continues to grow.

This was the warmest autumn on record for western Alaska. Local observer comments on how lack of sea ice is effecting fish and bird behavior.

Ice conditions on the Yukon have changed since the 1980's. Now, open water is more common in spots along the river, which impacts winter travel.

Late freeze on the Lower Kuskokwim produced ice conditions unsafe for travel in November.

Northwest crow (Corvus caurinus) pair nesting in Anchorage, possibly north of range.

Despite it almost being January, an Eagle River homeowner has captured footage of a black bear awake and active around her house.