Arctic

TOOLIK LAKE, Alaska -- The last days of summer are rapidly fading here in the land of the midnight sun, 160 miles above the Arctic Circle, spurring a frenzy by animals and plants alike to prepare for the hyperborean winter's nine-month onslaught.Also racing against the clock to finish their field work are dozens of international scientists at this remote research site, searching for small pieces that could fit into the puzzle of global warming.With an urgency that drives 18-hour workdays (much less tiring under the 24-hour sun)

PEVEK, Russia -- Cut off from the rest of the world by heavy snow, howling Arctic winds, economic collapse and government breakdown, the desperate town of Mys Shmidta can hold out a few more days before the last of the heating oil is gone.Then, with daytime temperatures as low as 35 below zero, the 4,300 residents can burn their last few scraps of wood to keep warm and contemplate the Russian pullback that is leaving them behind.Moscow can no longer support the towns and cities strung across the Arctic, places that began as grim prison camps and evolved into mining and industrial outposts that have become hopelessly expensive to maintain.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is closing the iciest chapter of the Cold War by phasing out U.S. Navy attack submarine patrols under the Arctic icecap, where they hunted Soviet missile-launching submarines for almost 30 years, according to Navy officials.The move was disclosed by the commander of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet Submarine force, Vice Adm. Richard Mies, during a wide-ranging recent interview on the changing role of the U.S. submarine fleet.Mies portrayed the decision as one in a series of difficult choices facing an American submarine fleet reduced by smaller budgets.

Despite an increase in homeless people seeking relief from the bitter cold at Baltimore area shelters, authorities in the region reported few weather-related problems yesterday.At the Baltimore Rescue Mission on Central Avenue, supervisor Hal Saal expected a full house of 200 last night. "We were five or six people short of a full house on Friday," he said. "But I'll be stacking the chairs in the chapel again just in case we need the extra room. I use every space I can to get them off the street," he said.

A blast of Arctic air that swept into Maryland this weekend is expected to bring the coldest morning this winter to parts of the state today, possibly breaking 40-year records for low temperatures.The mercury was expected to drop to between zero and 5 degrees this morning at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, making it the coldest morning so far this winter at the airport, said Amet Figueroa, a National Weather Service meteorologist.At midnight, the temperature was 8 degrees at BWI, the weather service reported.

Today in history: Sept. 27In 1825, the first locomotive to haul a passenger train was operated by George Stephenson in England.In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner occurred when the steamship Arctic sank. There were 300 people aboard.In 1939, Warsaw, Poland, surrendered after weeks of resistance to invading forces from Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during World War II.In 1964, the Warren Commission issued a report concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone in assassinating President John F. Kennedy.

Russian and American officials are still trying to determine exactly how much oil has spilled from a leaking pipeline near the Russian Arctic coast. Estimates range from just over 100,000 barrels, the figure offered by Russian industry officials, to more than 2 million barrels, which U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy William H. White cited as the more likely figure. The latter is some eight times the size of the spill created when the Exxon Valdez ran aground off Alaska in 1989. This would make the Russian spill one of the worst environmental disasters of its type in history.

IQALUIT, Northwest Territories -- Adamie Pitseolak dreams of leading his people to master a more modern destiny as they carve an independent homeland out of the arctic ice.But with five years to go before they redraw the map of North America, there is growing anxiety among Canada's Inuit over whether Nunavut (Our Land) will be a shining success or a dismal failure.Once known as Eskimos (literally, "eaters of raw meat"), the Inuit yearn to preserve their ancestral ways of hunting, fishing and trapping across the snow-swept top of the globe, while also moving into the modern world and the next century.

Winter wins. Surrender those mangled shovels, leaky boots and clogged cans of De-Icer. Yield to the arsenal of Arctic blasts and stay at home, where reading about the Arctic can help put our cold snaps into perspective.* Peter Sis is one of the most talented creators of contemporary children's books. He hasn't won a Caldecott Medal, but his work has made the list of New York Times Best Illustrated Books four times. This past year it was for "A Small Tall Tale From the Far Far North" (Knopf, $15, 40 pages, ages 5-10)

Somebody called The Sun this week and blamed this month's frigid weather on "that Hubble repair flight in December. It disrupted the jet stream and made us all freeze down here," the caller complained.He may have been half right.Meteorologist Russell L. Martin of the National Weather Service's Climate Analysis Center in Camp Springs says something has indeed disrupted the jet stream, which steers weather systems across North America.But Mr. Martin points at "El Nino," the periodic warming and cooling of Pacific Ocean waters, which can send the jet stream unusually deep into the Arctic and bring it roaring back down across the central and eastern United States with deadly cold, snow and ice.Happily, the latest blast of arctic air -- which has sent temperatures to the single digits as far south as Mississippi -- should be the last for a while, he said.

An arctic air front is bringing cooler temperatures to the area - and even a chance of a snow flurry in the next few days - a big change from yesterday's balmy weather. Expect clear and blustery weather today with a high near 50, a 20-degree drop from yesterday's high, said National Weather Service meteorologist Brandon Peloquin. The temperature will continue to fall in the next few days, with high temperatures in the upper 40s forecast for tomorrow and highs in the low 40s Tuesday. Low temperatures Tuesday will be below freezing, he said.

Man admits role in fatal bank robbery plot ERIE, Pa.: A man admitted in federal court yesterday that he helped plot a bizarre bank robbery that ended when a bomb strapped around a pizza deliveryman's neck exploded and killed him, the first conviction in the five-year-old case. Kenneth Barnes pleaded guilty to conspiracy and a charge of aiding and abetting at a hearing in which prosecutors also revealed new details, based on a statement by Barnes, about deliveryman Brian Wells' involvement in the scheme.

We can't see it from here, but there is a total eclipse of the sun early tomorrow morning. The path will sweep from Canada's arctic territory of Nunavut, across northern Greenland and Siberia, into Mongolia and China. The eclipse begins at 5:21 a.m. EDT and ends at 7:21 a.m. NASA TV will cover it live from China ( www.nasa.gov/eclipse), beginning at 6 a.m. EDT. The total eclipse there occurs at 7:08 a.m. EDT. Biggest audience under the moon's shadow? Xian, China, population 3.9 million.

A Danish expedition is scheduled to set out today to join in the unseemly rush to establish sovereignty claims in the Arctic. The Russians put a flag on the sea floor earlier this month, and the Canadians, after sneering at the Russian "stunt," then sent their prime minister to the Far North to wave the Maple Leaf over what may become disputed territory. All three nations are impelled by deadlines established in the Law of the Sea Treaty - a pact the United States has not ratified, which is why it has so far remained on the sidelines.

Daily Sun reader Ed O. Lohmeyer, 86, writes from Baltimore: "What causes the jet stream to move in the pattern it does, and what causes it to drastically change?" The jet stream flows along the shifting boundaries between big masses of warm and cold air, like a conga line through a crowded party, steering energy and storms. As arctic air plunges south in winter, or hot air moves north in summer, the jet stream moves with them. Spring and fall may find it snaking all over the map.

Sarah Maury Swan writes from Granite: "March is known for having heavy winds, especially at the beginning of the month. Why is that? Changes in Earth temperature?" Yes. Blame spring. The year is still young enough to bring us cold, clear, Arctic high pressure. But higher sun angles to our south are firing up storms (low-pressure systems). They're pressing north, creating steep pressure differences against the highs. That's what fuels strong winds. March is Baltimore's windiest month, averaging 10.5 mph at BWI.

A union contractor alleges that officials connected to the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, which is majority-owned by the Orioles, backed out on a deal in which the contractor was to help construct a new studio in downtown Baltimore. The contractor, Arctic Refrigeration of Ellicott City, said in a recent Circuit Court action that it is owed more than $1 million because it supplied labor and material for the proposed studio in a building on the 200 block of North Charles Street. Arctic - which provides heating, ventilation, air conditioning and plumbing - says it began work earlier this year after receiving a letter of intent from Artemis Properties Inc., a construction project manager.

The last time the Earth's atmosphere was full of greenhouse gases was 55 million years ago, and now the journal Nature reports that things grew so warm in the Arctic back then that the ocean temperature there was about 73 degrees. That's considerably warmer than the Atlantic was off Ocean City last week. It suggests that the polar regions react much more dramatically to climate swings than previously thought, and it means there was no ice anywhere in the far north (and probably the far south)

WASHINGTON -- Jittery about voters' sour mood over high gasoline prices less than six months before congressional elections, the Republican-controlled House passed an old favorite yesterday: legislation seeking to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. The measure, approved by a vote of 225-201, faces long odds in the Senate, where it has been blocked repeatedly by filibusters. A Senate GOP aide called the measure "DOA" in that chamber. But House Republicans wanted to return to their districts for Memorial Day able to say they had acted on energy legislation before the summer vacation season begins.

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. has repeatedly referred to himself a "neutral arbiter" in negotiations with Constellation Energy Group over rising electricity rates, saying a problem was dumped in his lap as a result of a deregulation plan passed by the General Assembly in 1999 when he was in Congress. At the time, however, Ehrlich was a notable supporter of lifting regulations on power companies. As a Republican member of the House Energy and Power subcommittee, he was one of 16 congressmen to vote in October 1999 for a bill to lift federal regulations on power companies and to encourage states to make decisions to foster competition.