Title: In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action | NOAA Climate.gov
Headings: In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action
In Barrow, Alaska, climate change in action
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The way sea ice used to be
Changes in sea ice lead to local climate change
Climate consequences for people, livelihoods, and property
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Content: Climate consequences for people, livelihoods, and property
Societal expectations of the risks and opportunities inherent to place—the lifestyles, jobs, or recreation that are possible—form over a collective lifetime of experience. In Barrow, those expectations are being upended. Sea ice returning a month or more later than in past decades has a disproportionate effect on subsistence hunters as usable daylight drops to almost none by late November. ( The last sunrise of the year in Barrow is on November 18.) Dramatically warmer autumn air temperatures are allowing the permafrost that underlies Barrow to thaw to a greater depth than in the past, destabilizing roads and buildings as well traditional subterranean freezers. The dramatic decline in sea ice coverage in the autumn means that there is much more open water to the west and northwest of Barrow. On October 13-14, 2012, a strong storm, 500 miles northwest of Barrow, produced coastal flooding in low-lying parts of Barrow. This flooding was not the result of unusually powerful winds at Barrow itself; the average wind speed on October 13 was just 16.3 mph, and the peak gust just 30 mph. An old runway at the Naval Arctic Research Lab in Barrow was closed following storm surge flooding in October 2010.