Line graph time series of 2026's daily Arctic sea ice extent compared to decadal averages from the 1980s to the 2010s. The decadal averages are shown with different colored lines with purple for the 1980s, blue for the 1990s, green for the 2000s, and white for the 2010s. Thin white lines are also shown for each year from 2000 to 2025. 2026 is shown with a thick gold line. There is a long-term decreasing trend in ice extent for every day of the year shown on this graph between March and May by looking at the decadal average line positions.

Friday ice update - #Arctic sea ice extent is currently the 5th lowest on record (JAXA data)...

• about 350,000 km² below the 2010s mean
• about 720,000 km² below the 2000s mean
• about 1,220,000 km² below the 1990s mean
• about 1,740,000 km² below the 1980s mean

More: zacklabe.com/arctic-sea-i...

Jim on Everest seracs:

“‘Icefall is a living, moving, groaning, white fang homicidal mass of glacial debris,’ he wrote of the route just beyond base camp.”

Love John Branch’s @nytimes.com piece, too.

Jim’s description of fighting altitude on Everest was 🔥

“Even with oxygen tanks, we were sucking air. Put a pillow on your face, run around the block and try to suck oxygen through that pillow. It will give you an idea.”

www.nytimes.com/2026/04/08/s...

Famed mountaineer Jim Whittaker, first American atop Mount Everest, dies at 97 | Cascadia Daily News Longtime Port Townsend resident inspired generations of alpinists, defined an active NW outdoor lifestyle

Extraordinary obituary of one of the PNW players (along with Fred Beckey, of course, and his twin brother Lou) who put U.S. mountaineering on the map—Seattle native "Big Jim" Whittaker, the first American to summit Everest.

What a life. www.cascadiadaily.com/2026/apr/08/...

Huh.

This was a year ago today.

Not feeling a whole lot different.

I posted this elsewhere yesterday: my first job in journalism was at a startup computer trade paper in 1984. I had no background in journalism or tech (I was a geographer). The guy who hired me told me to read The Soul of a New Machine, and begin learning from that. Great book, great advice.

Tracy Kidder, Author of ‘The Soul of a New Machine,’ Dies at 80

A true master. His Iowa Writers’ Workshop classmates included Denis Johnson and T.C. Boyle. Wow.

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/b...

I agree. This event has been meteorologically astonishing, and its impacts will be felt long after it ends in terms of record low snowpack, sharply increased wildfire risk, and extreme low watershed runoff/streamflow into summer and beyond.

This is a graph of #snowpack above #LakePowell using 104 snow measuring stations. It was 9 inches of water on March 7, now 6 inches. Other dry years shown.There is no historical analog to this — Brad ... Colorado River snowpack evolution since Oct 2025. Melt started about March 7. Down to 6Inches now from 9 inches then. There is no historical analog.

"There is no historical analog to this." @coyotegulch.bsky.social

coyotegulch.blog/2026/03/26/t...

536 miles of this

Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?

The AI voice reading me this article pronounced ACL “tears” as rhyming with “fears,” and I can’t say it’s wrong, given the content of the story. @craigwelch.bsky.social puts the promise and pity of the FIFA 11+ in context for @nytimes.com. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/m...

Thank you for sharing. 🙏🙏

Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?

In the NYT Magazine: Over 4 years, a dozen of my daughter’s current and former teammates (including my child) ruptured a combined 19 ACLs. Knee injuries have become a global crisis for teen girls. Yet we’ve known for 25 years how to reduce ACL tears. What went wrong? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/m...

See story online below or in Sunday, March 1 issue.

Both an incredibly reported and devastatingly personal piece - kudos @craigwelch.bsky.social

🎁 link

Thank you so much. As you can imagine, this story and issue mean a lot to me. 🙏

Ugh. So sorry. 😢

This is very true as well.

Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?

A must read from my friend and fellow Nieman @craigwelch.bsky.social
Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/m...

a great story on the devastating growth of ACL injuries which can be prevented for many through effective active warm up regimens like the FIFA11+ routine

A stunning story by @craigwelch.bsky.social with an equally striking comment thread, full of people who can relate to Craig, his daughter Edie and her teammates:

▪️"My daughter has your daughter's story verbatim"
▪️"After three of my teammates tore their ACLs in a single week"
▪️"I tore my ACL twice"

I am so sorry to hear this. And sorry that I keep hearing it over and over. Good luck to you and definitely look into Fifa 11+. The research is pretty overwhelming ...

As one expert told me, "It’s probably the biggest youth sports issue in the world right now, apart from concussions.”

And we've known how to address for 25 years, yet injuries just keep rising.

My new piece in this weekend's New York Times Magazine.

Thank you!!

My daughter, too. Very solid piece.

Thank you, Michael. Appreciate you reading and sharing.

Thanks, Casey.

All the many months I spent with this story, and in one paragraph in one morning, you described the phenomenon more crisply and coherently than I have yet.

Editors, man. We all need 'em. Just don't tell anyone I said so.

And thanks for sharing.

Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?

My friend @craigwelch.bsky.social wrote this fascinating, lucid, sometimes enraging, sometimes heartbreaking but ultimately half-hopeful story about the spike in ACL injuries among teen girls — including his daughter. Gift link! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/m...

Thank you. And I'm so sorry to hear that. So, so many others in the same boat. But I appreciate very much that you're sharing it ...!

Alas, it's hard to know the answer. The whole system is so bifurcated. I can't even tell you what the coaches of all the teams that played against my daughter are doing, let alone what entire organizations are doing. But I think you've hit on the right questions ...