Mid-September, 2022, was not a good time to be living along the Bering Coast in Western Alaska. That was the week Typhoon Merbok, a Category One storm, struck the region, packing sustained winds of 130 km/h (80 mph), causing 15 m (50 ft.) waves and inundating communities along 1,600 km (1,000 mi.) of coastline. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy declared a state of disaster on Sept. 17, saying at the time, “The storm hitting the coastal regions of western Alaska is unprecedented.”

And indeed it was. Merbok was caused by unusually warm coastal waters in the North Pacific, part of the overall change in climate that has been affecting the Arctic region for the past 40 years. On Dec. 13, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), released its 2022 “Arcti…