Juneau, Alaska, orders evacuation as a record glacier flood loom | Alaska

Juneau, the capital of Alaska Climate change In a glacier retreat, according to Federal agency.

Summer glacier floods (called glacial lake outbreak floods) or GLOFs threaten certain parts of the city due to the combination of rainwater and melting snow.

Authorities say floods on the Mendenhall River are likely to reach the summit around 4 p.m. Alaska time, or Wednesday at 8 p.m. They hope the recently installed emergency floods will block the waters and protect the Mendenhall Valley, most of the 32,000 full-time residents in Juno.

Authorities confirmed Tuesday morning that the water had escaped the ice dam and flooding was expected on Wednesday. Officials stepped up warnings Tuesday, saying “Don’t wait, evacuate tonight” and some residents in the flood zone have evacuated.

Juno National Weather Service (NWS) Office Say in X post Later Tuesday, local hydrologists adjusted their Mendenhall flood forecasts, which is expected to exceed 16 feet Wednesday morning.

Nicole Ferrin and the Northwest (NWS) said in a briefing Tuesday that the flood warning was issued after a “large amount of analysis” but the calculations were complicated by rainfall, causing a significant rise in lakes and rivers and confirmed sub-glacial releases.

“It will be a new record based on all the information we have,” Ferring said. According to the Juno Empire.

The Mendenhall glacier fills a large valley north of Juno and creates an ice dam for a meltwater lake filled with suicide basins. Since 2011, floods from the Great Depression have been pouring into Mendenhall Lake and sailing along the river to Juneau every year.

However, the annual flooding of Mendenhall Glacier Lake is believed to be due to Climate change.

In a statement, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) said Alaska has been warming twice as fast as the rest of the United States over the past few decades.

In the last century, the average annual temperature in Alaska rose by 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit, and the overall trend continued to increase. According to data From NOAA National Environmental Information Center.

Scientists attribute the retreat, melting and thinning of glaciers to the warm climate of the planet. Alaska’s glaciers are The fastest melting glacier on Earth It has been declining sharply since the late 1980s. Alaska Climate Science Center.

Rick Thoman, an Alaska climate expert at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy, now threatens Juno in record water counts. NOAA Report: “There is no climate change, there is no reason to think that this will happen at the Mendenhall Glacier and then in the middle and downstream of the lake.”

An outbreak in August 2023 sent to Juneau on the Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River Juno’s NWS office says At that time, severe erosion was caused.

The Mendenhall Glacier is about 12 miles from Juno and is considered a popular tourist destination. Juno lives 800 miles from Anchorage Donald Trump and the Russian President Vladimir Putin The meeting was scheduled to be held on Friday to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Flooding of glaciers has become an annual focus for nearly 15 years, with homes sweeping and flooding hundreds of them in recent years.

It blames the retreat of a smaller glacier near Mendenhall Glacier, which is a casualty from the heating climate – and leaves a basin filled with rain and melting snow every spring and summer.

When water creates enough pressure, it forces it to be under or around the ice dam caused by blue iceberg glaciers.

Mendenhall was originally named Sitaantaagu (“glacier behind the town”) or Aak’wtaaksit (“glacier behind the small lake”) but later called the Auke (Auk) glacier of the Auk Kwaan Band of Tlingit Indians, which was later called the Auk Kwaan Indians, by the Nature Denomination John Muir. It was renamed Thomas Corwin Mendenhall in 1892, which helped determine the border between Canada and Alaska. It is considered a relic of the Little Ice Age that lasted until the mid-18th century and is now about 100 to 150 feet a year.

The Associated Press contributed the report.