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Arctic Alaska orFar North Alaska is aregion of theU.S.state ofAlaska generally referring to the northern areas on or close to theArctic Ocean.
It commonly includesNorth Slope Borough,Northwest Arctic Borough,Nome Census Area, and is sometimes taken to include parts of theYukon-Koyukuk Census Area. Some notabletowns there includePrudhoe Bay,Utqiaġvik,Kotzebue,Nome andGalena, although some of these are not in theArctic Circle proper.
Most of these communities have nohighways and can only be reached byaircraft orsnowmobile in goodweather. Originally inhabited by variousAlaska Native groups living off hunting, whaling, orsalmonfishing, modern settlement in Arctic Alaska was driven first by discoveries ofgold and later on by theextraction of petroleum.
Theecosystem consists largely oftundra coveringmountain ranges andcoastal plains which are home tobears,wolves,sheep,muskoxen,caribou, and numerousspecies ofbirds, the north coast has been defined as theArctic coastal tundra ecoregion. Arctic Alaska is also the location of theArctic National Wildlife Refuge,Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve,Kobuk Valley National Park and theNational Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. The Arctic experiencesmidnight sun in the summer andpolar night in the winter.
Most of northern Alaska has an Arctic climate with long, extremely cold winters and short, cool summers. The average temperatures during the summer months are only several degrees above freezing and the average temperatures during winter are as low as −20 to −30 °F (−29 to −34 °C), and can dip to −50 to −60 °F (−46 to −51 °C).
