Erosion impacting wells and transmission line

Observation by Paul Walton

In the past 2 year the river has changed its direction eroding the west side of the river bank. Close to 50' has washed away there is less the 40' to water line supply from wells; soon erosion will wash it away. It may be this year or next before the river takes the wells and transmission line.

Comments from LEO Editors

The March, April and May monthly summaries from the Alaska Climate Research Center report that the Noatak area did not receive an above average amount of precipitation this spring. Precipitation for Kotzebue in March was 204.5% of average, yet April had 93% of average precipitation and Kotzebue received significantly below-normal precipitation at 27.3% in May. Noatak doesn't have region-specific precipitation information in the summaries and the June data has not yet been published. We use Kotzebue information because of proximity. For more precise information, precipitation data was retrieved from the Weatherspark website and is attached below. As the graph illustrates, there is still not a significant amount of precipitation.

In the One Health Group December meeting, Rick Thoman from UAF ACCAP cautioned that in the Early Winter Alaska/Arctic Climate Review and Forecast, there is much variability in the analyses of precipitation. However, Rick did present the NOAA findings (attached below) and the area that encompasses Noatak received significantly above normal precipitation in the Winter. Rick also reported a very weak probability that the West/Northwest would receive above normal precipitation this Spring. In the Alaska Department of Coastal Erosion website there is a page for "Active Advisories, Watches and Warnings." The alert posted on 6/28/2021 mentioning Noatak is attached below and warns for flooding. Here is a link to the full written report. Chyna Perez-Williams