Title: What climate change looks like in Alaska now - Anchorage Daily News
Headings: What climate change looks like in Alaska now
What climate change looks like in Alaska now
Since the mid-20th century, Alaska and the Arctic have been warming about twice as fast as the global rate. Over the past five decades, average Alaska temperatures have increased by 3.4 degrees Fahrenheit, with the increases most pronounced in winter -- a change noticed by Native elders decades ago.
Winter 6.3 degrees warmer
Weather changes, weather extremes
Melt and thaw  glaciers and permafrost
Forests, fires and plants
Wildlife on thin ice
Erosion, villages and culture
Food security, health and safety
Ocean acidification pronounced in Alaska waters
Cold Rush
About this author

Content: July was the hottest month on record and 2015 — with the help of the brewing El Nino system in the Pacific — is poised to break the annual record. It can be difficult to parse out the differences between the chaos of daily weather from medium-term cycles from long-term climate change, experts say. "Weather is what clothing you put on in the morning, and climate is what clothing you have in your closet," Fresco said. " Weather is still a day-to-day thing that can vary enormously." Beyond the day-to-day and year-to-year fluctuations, some long-term trends have emerged. The Arctic as a whole has gotten warmer and wetter since the start of the 21st century, a change attributed to sea-ice reduction. Other forces like reduced snow cover — which this year hit a near-record June low in the Northern Hemisphere — and cloud formation amplify the warming. Records show that Alaska's North Slope has warmed dramatically, most so in autumn, the time of minimal ice when more summer heat absorbed by the ocean is emitted into the atmosphere, thanks to ever-bigger areas of open water in that season. Lack of sea ice means fall storms are more destructive. On the Bering Sea coast, storms are sending seawater far inland, as much as 20 miles in southwestern Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim region, the U.S. Geological Survey reports.