Arctic amplification

[ljgeoff]

“This is just epic,” said Mike Coffey, commander of the unified incident command, a response team consisting of the state, the North Slope Borough and oil companies. “People who have been here for decades say they’ve never seen anything like it.”

The state has estimated the costs of the damage and repairs since March at $5.1 million. The federal government may pay for much of that, since the icing and flooding on the highway has been declared a disaster, said Coffey, the director of state transportation maintenance and operations.

The event was caused by heavy summer rains followed by extensive freezing this winter, trapping the water in place, then a rapid spring warmup that has brought record temperatures to the region.
Alaska Dispatch News

And from Colorado Bob on Neven's Arctic Sea Ice blog:

The forecast for Fairbanks, Ak.

89F degrees

This heat goes all the way to delta of the MacKenzie River.

When the sun come up tomorrow, thousands of square miles of tundera will be exposed to above 80F degrees in May.