Retreating Yukon glacier makes river disappear

Thanks for the extra info, Sue. I didn't notice that was your picture until you mentioned it! Nice. I remember this area as being very cold & windy (in September). Amazing how our planet realigns itself!

In this case, the glacier has receded a bit, so the melt from it no longer split north and south. Instead, it all flows south which is downhill, thus nothing going north to Kluane Lake.

A lot will depend on the outflow area at the north end of the lake, at the Kluane River. Plus there's more evaporation in this warmer weather we are having now.

And I guess in the no too far forseable future the North Star will be the STAR VEGA and Hawaii will be the north pole once again...

I heard they had a hugh snow storm of late...

Everything is changing at a fast rate now...

Roy Ken

This change to the water is actually a return to what existed 350 years ago. The water from the glacier is now flowing south to the Pacific Ocean rather than north to the Bering Sea via Kluane Lake, Kluane River, Donjek River, White River and the Yukon River.

A research paper by the University of Alberta predicted this 10 years ago: https://www.ualberta.ca/~areyes/BertoPage/Publications_files/QR_kluanelake.pdf

The picture being used by CBC is of my dogs at Kluane Lake at the end of May, looking west up the Slims River valley. In the picture, you can see where the water levels usually are.



When I visited again in early June, Slim's River was completely dry and there was a sandstorm blowing across the lake.
The mudflats visible in this picture were usually under water.