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“Juneau, in the southeast, saw an astounding 10 daily record highs. The city closed the month of March with seven days in row of record highs, from the 25th through the 31st. The 59-degree record high there on March 31 was the second-warmest reading on record for the month.”
“Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), in the northernmost tip of the United States, the thermometer rose above freezing for the third time on record in March, when it hit 33 on March 30. It ended up the warmest March on record there by more than six degrees.”
“Fairbanks notched its warmest March, with an average temperature more than 15 degrees above normal.”
“Deadhorse, on the coast in northeast Alaska, just went through a week-long stretch of temperatures more than 30 degrees above normal. On Saturday, it was 40 degrees above normal, a monthly record for that location, per Thoman.”
Making matters worse, Anchorage had no snow accumulation during March either, and although Southern Alaska was not as warm as the rest of the state, it is experiencing a long-lasting drought. Finally, Bering Sea ice levels are again at their lowest ever (see graphic below), which is leading climate scientists to conclude that previous low sea ice records were not anomalies.
Why This Matters: Alaska is warming faster than any other state, with devastating impacts for the way of life in the region. It will mean loss of permafrost that many native Alaskans use as “freezer” storage, will change wildlife migration patterns impacting subsistence fishing and hunting, and the weather pattern “stuck” over the region has also caused unusual storminess over parts of the state and in the Bering Sea. As we have said repeatedly, the evidence that climate change is here, and causing many problems beyond catastrophic weather disasters, continues to mount. We need to aggressively adapt in Alaska and that will take federal help — help that a large green infrastructure mobilization like the Green New Deal could provide.
By WW0 Staff For the United States, the post-Trump, pre-COP26 road to Glasgow has been paved with ambition and humility. In a major speech, the President’s Envoy, John Kerry, previewed the results of his climate diplomacy before heading into two weeks of intense deliberations of world leaders. Speaking at the London School of Economics — […]
Next week, the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow will draw hundreds of world leaders to Glasgow to determine the path forward five years after the Paris Climate Agreement (for a primer, read this) as new science underscores the urgency. The conference aims to squeeze countries to strengthen the commitments they’ve made towards securing global net-zero […]
By Amy Lupica, ODP Daily Editor In a report released last week, the Department of Defense (DOD) confirmed that existing risks and security challenges in the US are being made worse due to “increasing temperatures; changing precipitation patterns; and more frequent, intense, and unpredictable extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. Now, the Pentagon is […]
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