Stories
The 20th edition of the Arctic Report Card, published this week, continues to serve as a record of persistent and extraordinary warming in the North. As has been the case since its inception in 2006, University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers contributed essays documenting the changing Arctic. “The annual update, year after year, allows the Arctic Report Card to cover a wide variety of topics, much more than could ever appear in a single report,” said…
An 8-month-old was the youngest attendee at the International Arctic Research Center (ACCAP’s host organization) annual retreat this year. While colleagues lined up to strategize IARC’s future, they took turns snuggling a squishy baby. This blending of work and personal life is not particularly unusual at IARC, which in August 2025 was one of eight employers that received the Family Friendly Workplace Award from the Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce. Nancy Fresco takes a turn…
This story originally appeared in The Conversation. Remnants of a powerful typhoon swept into Western Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta on Oct. 12, 2025, producing a storm surge that flooded villages as far as 60 miles up the river. The water pushed homes off their foundations and set some afloat with people inside, officials said. More than 50 people had to be rescued in Kipnuk and Kwigillingok, hundreds were displaced in the region, and at least one person died. Typhoon Halong was an unusual storm,…
The American Meteorological Society released its annual State of the Climate report this week, providing a comprehensive overview of global conditions in 2024. Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness scientists and collaborators contributed data and analysis for the Arctic and Alaska regions, as they have for years. Rick Thoman was the lead editor of the Arctic chapter this year, and several other University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists authored sections of the report. Their contributions demonstrate that…
Analysis of bowhead whale poop shows that more toxins from typically warm-water toxic algae species are entering Arctic food webs as northern oceans warm and lose sea ice. The findings are based on nearly 20 years of feces samples collected from bowhead whales harvested for subsistence purposes by Alaska Native people living on the Beaufort Sea coast. The study, conducted by an interdisciplinary team led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was published this…