The glacier lake outburst that sent an unprecedented amount of water rushing towards Alaska's capital, destroying homes, would not have happened without climate change.
The Mendenhall Lake crested at 14.97 feet the night of Aug. 5, smashing the previous record of 11.99 feet set in July 2016 and exceeding the initial forecast of 12.3 feet by the Alaska-Pacific River Forecast Center.
A view of flooding following a glacial dam outburst, in Juneau, Alaska, in this picture released on Aug. 5, 2023.Andrew Park, a Meteorologist at NWS Juneau, described the fast-moving flow to Climate.gov as "historic." The previous maximum streamflow, set in 2015, was 16,300 cubic feet per second, according to USGS records.
"Without climate change, there is no reason to think that this would be happening on the Mendenhall Glacier, then in the lake, and downriver," Thoman said.The flooding occurred after a break from the Mendenhall Glacier's Suicide Basin, which has changed drastically due to thinning, melting and glacial retreat, according to NOAA. Suicide Glacier was once a much larger frozen tributary, which flowed into and merged with the Mendenhall Glacier.
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