Despite a global trend of warming climate, Alaska has been experiencing a widespread cooling pattern for at least a decade, scientists say.

In the first decade since 2000, the state has cooled an average of 2.4 degrees Fahrenheit, the online newspaper Alaska Dispatch reported.

That's a "large value for a decade," the Alaska Climate Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks said in a report published in the Atmospheric Science Journal.

Cooling temperatures have been recorded at 19 of the 20 National Weather Service stations spread throughout Alaska, the report said.

Parts of Western Alaska saw temperatures drop a significant 4.5 degrees for the decade, it said.

Researchers said the cooling was likely caused by an ocean phenomenon known as the Decadal Oscillation that moved colder surface water temperatures closer to Alaska.

Researchers said it is unknown how long the cooling trend might last, although they noted the state experienced thirty years of relative cold climate starting in the mid-1940s.

One killed as cyclone hits New Caledonia
Noumea (AFP) Jan 3, 2013 - One man was killed and another was missing after Cyclone Freda hit New Caledonia, as landslides blocked roads and high winds downed power lines, officials in the French Pacific territory said Thursday.

Wind gusts had weakened to 90 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour) as it moved towards the east Caledonian island of Mare, after hitting the Solomon Islands earlier this week as a destructive storm with gusts reaching 231 kph.

High commissioner Albert Dupuy told reporters in the capital Noumea that one man had drowned in high seas whipped up by Freda, while an 18-year-old male was missing after attempting to cross a swollen river.

Some 3,200 people were without power, Dupuy said, adding that multiple roadways were blocked by landslides or flooding.

The storm was moving eastward at 30 kph and set to leave the New Caledonian region over the next 48 hours, officials said.