Flowers grow in new meadows in Western Siberia above the 70th parallel, only 1000 miles away from the North Pole. An expedition organised by Tomsk State University in the summer of 2019 found oases of rich vegetation formed in places of actively thawing permafrost. Russian scientists were surprised to find carpets of herbs and flowers, with daisies, dandelions, polar poppies, horsetail, several types of wormwood, cereals, and even willow growing in Arctic “oases”. Photo: Sergey Loiko / Tomsk State University

Poppies, dandelions, and daisies bloom in never-before-seen Arctic oases

By Olga Gertcyk 16 October 2019 (The Siberian Times) – ‘Blooming’ might be the last word to associate with the Arctic, yet pictures below show meadows bursting with life as brightly-coloured flowers blossom in lush green grass. And while vegetation in khasyreis, basins of drained Arctic lakes, is less of a surprise, researchers discovered ‘bursts […]

This animation shows Arctic sea ice decline from 1979 to 2019 from pink to purple, with dark purple in 2019. This animation is based on the Chartic Interactive Sea Ice Graph. Graphic: M. Scott / NSIDC

Falling up: A look back at the 2019 Arctic summer – New record daily lows for sea ice extent in July and early August

3 October 2019 (NSIDC) – Arctic sea ice began its autumn regrowth in the last 12 days of September, with the ice edge expanding along a broad front in the western Arctic Ocean. Overall, the summer of 2019 was exceptionally warm, with repeated pulses of very warm air from northern Siberia and the Bering Strait. […]

Aerial view of an illegal gold mining facility on the Seyba River, 255 kilometers south of Krasnoyarsk city, Siberia, that was destroyed by flooding from a dam burst on 19 October 2019. Photo: The Siberian Times

Dam collapse at illegal Siberia gold mine leaves at least 15 dead, 130 evacuated

By Yuliya Fedorinova 19 October 2019 (Bloomberg) – A dam collapsed at a gold mine in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk region, leaving at least 15 people dead, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said on its website. The collapse happened at about 2 a.m. Moscow time near one of the small local gold mining companies’ operations, the ministry […]

Wild reindeer cross a river in the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia. More than 40,000 wild reindeer have perished since the last count in 2017, say scientists who returned from an expedition to the Taymyr Peninsula. Photo: Zapovedniki Taymyra / The Siberian Times

Northern reindeer that roamed Taymyr peninsula are at the brink of extinction – “The losses are catastrophic”

By Olga Gertcyk 30 September 2019 (The Siberian Times) – More than 40,000 wild reindeer perished since the last count in 2017, said scientists who returned from a major expedition to the Taymyr Peninsula. The Yenisei group of reindeer has disappeared entirely while the westernmost group living along the Tareya River has dramatically shrunk in […]

In Doha, Qatar, Fans equipped with misters blow moist air on evening diners who sit beside cooling units. Overnight lows rarely dip below 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Photo: Salwan Georges / The Washington Post

Facing unbearable heat, Qatar has begun to air-condition the outdoors – “The Persian Gulf is a prophecy of what’s to come”

By Steven Mufson 16 October 2019 DOHA, Qatar (The Washington Post) – It was 116 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade outside the new Al Janoub soccer stadium, and the air felt to air-conditioning expert Saud Ghani as if God had pointed “a giant hair dryer” at Qatar. Yet inside the open-air stadium, a cool breeze was blowing. […]

Top: firefighters spray water on fire-damaged mobile home at the Journey’s End Mobile Home Park in Santa Rosa, California, 9 October 2017. Bottom: the same mobile home, a year later. “We really didn’t have two years,” said Lisa Frazee, who lost her Santa Rosa home in the Tubbs fire. “We had to get our infrastructure back – the bridges, the roads – before we could even start personally thinking of rebuilding. The cities and counties were inundated with that first. Then we had to get builders and there aren’t enough builders. There aren’t enough laborers.” Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Two years after California wildfires, survivors poised to lose housing funds – Dealing with insurance companies is “the disaster after the disaster”

Bu Vivian Ho 8 October 2019 SAN FRANCISCO (The Guardian) – Two years ago, they lost everything – their homes, baby photos, family heirlooms, keepsakes, jewelry, mementos – in a flurry of wildfires that ripped through California’s wine country. Now, on the second anniversary of these fires that killed 44 and destroyed thousands of buildings, survivors are […]

Statewide rankings for average temperature and precipitation for September 2019 compared to each September since records began in 1895. Graphic: NOAA / NCEI

September 2019 hottest on record globally, second hottest in U.S. history – All-time record for 12-month rainfall in U.S.

5 October 2019 (Copernicus Climate Change Service) – In Europe, temperatures were above average over most of the continent, especially in the south and south-east. Below-average temperatures occurred over much of Norway and Sweden, and over the far east of the continent. Globally September 2019 was 0.57°C warmer than the average September from 1981-2010, making […]

Trump refers to a map, modified using a Sharpie, while talking to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House on 4 September 2019. Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Top Commerce Department aides orchestrated NOAA’s Hurricane Dorian statement attacking NOAA meteorologists for contradicting Trump

By Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman 10 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – A letter sent Thursday from the chair of the House Science Committee to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross reveals that it was the Commerce Department, not the leadership of its National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, that drafted a controversial NOAA statement on 6 […]

Southern resident orca J16 makes a rainbow while surfacing in Puget Sound. Photo: Miles Ritter

Orca task force adds 13 recommendations at final meeting as “biological extinction” looms

By Bellamy Pailthorp 8 October 2019 (KNKX) – Their goal is clear: to prevent Puget Sound’s iconic Southern Resident killer whales from going extinct. Solving that problem is anything but simple. The task force convened by Gov. Jay Inslee to save the orcas added 13 new recommendations this week, at its final meeting. The additions […]

Satellite view of Super Typhoon Hagibis as a Category 5-equivalent storm on 7 October 2019. Photo: NOAA / RAMMB

Deadly Typhoon Hagibis packed devastating punch in Japan with record rainfall totals – 2,667 bags of Fukushima waste leaked

By Andrew Freedman 14 October 2019 (The Washington Post) – Typhoon Hagibis proved to be extraordinarily devastating for northern Japan when it struck this weekend, unleashing more than three feet of rain in just 24 hours in some locations, causing widespread flash flooding as well as river flooding. The storm has killed at least 58, according […]

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