Sitting on the Seward Peninsula, along the Bering Sea, the city of Nome was born after the "Three Lucky Swedes" found gold in 1898. The gold boom brought thousands of settlers to Nome, which soon grew from frontier town to small city. In 1925, a blizzard prevented medical supplies from reaching Nome, which was suffering from a diphtheria epidemic. A relay of sled dog teams struggled through the snow to reach the city, an epic journey that was the inspiration for the annual Iditarod Dog Race.

Nome weather essentials