Currently — August 7, 2023: Alaska's rapidly-warming landscape

The weather, currently.

Alaska is warming, fast. Over the weekend, two ominous events at opposite ends of the state were the latest bits of evidence.

Utqiaġvik, the northernmost-town in the US, had its hottest day in history on Saturday — 25°F (13.9°C) higher than normal for the date. Since Utqiaġvik is right on the Arctic Ocean, the average low temperature in early August is just a few degrees above freezing. This weekend, temperatures soared to a whopping 76°F.

Then, a glacial outburst flood on Sunday near Juneau scoured away homes and riverbank after the largest surge of water yet from the quickly-melting Mendenhall Glacier. The river that forms from the glacier’s meltwater reached its highest-ever flood stage after an ice dam collapsed that was trapping an entire lake. Magnificent storytelling from the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center shows exactly how this now-annual phenomenon began 12 years ago.

On average, the Arctic is warming about four times faster than the rest of the world, and Alaska is one of those places where the environment has already been totally transformed.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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