Title: Climate change is already affecting Alaska’s weather.
Headings: Baked Alaska
Baked Alaska
“What’s living in Alaska if it’s not cold and snowy?”

Content: All-time records were set for the coldest month in dozens of Eastern cities, with Boston racking up more snow than the peaks of California’s Sierra Nevada. A single January snowstorm in Boston produced more snow than Anchorage has seen all winter. The discrepancy set off some friendly banter recently between the Anchorage, Boston, and San Francisco offices of the National Weather Service. Alaska is at the front lines of climate change. This year’s Iditarod has been rerouted— twice —due to the warm weather. The race traditionally starts in Anchorage, which has had near-record low snowfall so far this winter. The city was without a single significant snowstorm between October and late January, so race organizers decided to move the start from the Anchorage area 360 miles north to Fairbanks. But when the Chena River, which was supposed to be part of the new route’s first few miles, failed to sufficiently freeze, the starting point had to move again, to another location in Fairbanks. Monica Zappa and her dog King Dweezil on March 9, 2015. Courtesy of Monica Zappa /Instagram
On Monday, Zappa and her dogs set out on the 1,000-mile race across Alaska as one of 78 mushers in this year’s Iditarod.