High water throughout the summer continues to erode the river bank.

LEO Member Jeffrey Luther has been documenting erosion along the Noatak River for many years. His drone footage this spring captures new bank erosion features and icicle formations.

Erratic temperatures led to the absence of tomcods, severely affecting local fishing.

Heavy rains have elevated river levels throughout August and September. High water continues to erode the river bank in the community. The photos show a tree that was 22 feet from the edge is know 3 feet. Total erosion has reached 91 ft. by old landfill and new mark shows 112 ft. marker.

Kivalina residents report cracks on the sides of the recently built evacuation road which connects the village to the storm refuge site and the school. The team with the Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities plans to visit the village and assess the damages at the end of August.

The river in Noatak is slowly cutting away parts of the road. This is an on going problem and the observation by Jeffrey Luther provides the latest in a series about erosion and related impacts.

This post is an update on the river erosion situation in Noatak, where a new channel is being cut by the Noatak River.

As the river changes and erosion happens along the banks, new channels are being formed around the community.

Permafrost thaw in Noatak is causing the condition of the grave site to degrade. A trench has formed and crosses are tipping over.

Kivalina has long dealt with climate change-driven erosion. While the village didn’t feel the effects of heavy flooding, residents are wary of a future with heavy autumn storms.

The heavy rains and high water from storm Murdok today and Monday are contributing to the erosion of the old landfill and river bank.

Community gravel source and old dump site threated by erosion.

The collapse was documented with drone imagery as was a permafrost rebound signature in the river water.

As the spring snow melt the flooding cuts away the bank more every day. This observation includes photos showing the location of the community water source, transmission line.

Noatak has lost 19' of river bank since May 19th. Now the road to the community gravel source is failing.

A fisherman was coming home from fishing last night and noticed (what he thought was) a coffin sticking out of the old gravesite above one of the markers I used to measure erosion with last summer. It turned out to not be a coffin, but rather an old air duct or metal meat trailer.

I'm guessing all the rain we received during summer of 2021 created the trench.

Extremely high winds blew over Northwest Alaska this weekend, pushing away ice cover and cutting power in some communities. The storm is expected to be 100 miles west of Utqiagvik by 3 a.m. on Tuesday morning and continue to weaken and drift north after that.

"This year we had a lot more rain than other years, we used to be able to get on our ATVs and travel 10-12 miles upriver. I haven't seen or heard of anyone using ATVs to travel upriver this year. I think the breakthrough channel has a lot to do with us not being able to travel on ATVs. I see a lot of my favorite ATV fishing spots washed away from the highwater."