The Arctic, particularly Alaska, is often considered a poster child for global warming. Observational data indeed indicate that Alaska is now warmer than 50 years ago, and this warming has impacted glaciers, sea ice and other features of the high-latitude environment. While greenhouse gas concentrations also show an indisputable increase during the same period, attribution of the warming is complicated by shifts in the atmospheric circulation and by discrepancies between the spatial pattern of the recent warming and the pattern of greenhouse warming simulated by climate models. In this presentation, we will assess the recent warming of Alaska in terms of its origin and the likelihood that it will continue.