Alaska Fires and smoke

[SteveK]

For anyone planning a trip to Alaska in the near future, be aware that there are major fires in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. In Alaska, we now have 2.69 million acres burning, with several fires covering 1/2 million acres each. There is dense smoke from the north side of the Alaska range through the interior to the Brooks Range. A fire that started three days ago north of Fairbanks has taken two cabins and one house so far. There are 80 active fires in the state, 496 fires have started. It is the driest and warmest summer on record in the interior; there has been no rain in the interior this summer.

 

[TonyM1]

Wow and nothing on the news in GA ??

 

[little big man]

I was just looking at flights to ANC last night and checked the Denali webcam - looked pretty hazy the last few days. Dangit!

Sean

 

[SteveK]

I was just looking at flights to ANC last night and checked the Denali webcam - looked pretty hazy the last few days. Dangit!

Sean

Sean, if you want to get a sense of the fires, go to http://fire.ak.blm.gov/, and select the most current "situation report". For a map, select: maps, imagery, geospatial>statewide fires

 

[User]

Sweet! My friend is probably stoaked. He is up there right now doing some prep work for a fire ecology Ph.D. project in the Boreal forests.

Fire season sucks in my area this year. Barely anything yet.

 

[Max Power]

My uncle may have to cancel a couple of his trips up north from Homer due to the haze. He is trying to add landscaped to the portfolio and the haze is killing it.

 

[TomP]

For anyone planning a trip to Alaska in the near future, be aware that there are major fires in Alaska and the Yukon Territory. In Alaska, we now have 2.69 million acres burning, with several fires covering 1/2 million acres each. There is dense smoke from the north side of the Alaska range through the interior to the Brooks Range. A fire that started three days ago north of Fairbanks has taken two cabins and one house so far. There are 80 active fires in the state, 496 fires have started. It is the driest and warmest summer on record in the interior; there has been no rain in the interior this summer.

That is a serious problem Steve in soooo many ways, but the reduced insolation is a total bummer. Shame to not get a return on you hard work.

 

[SteveK]

Fortunately where our house is in the Alaska range, we are in a rain/snow shadow of some of the highest mountains of the range. This belt only extends from a few miles north of us to about 40 miles south of us. While our lakes are low, we've had enough rain to keep the ground from being so dry. It's also cooler where we are, with more cloudy days. In the winter, we're considerably warmer than the communities north of us, and while Cantwell, 24 miles north will have -60F and little snow, we'll be a balmy -25F with 10 feet of snow on the ground.

 

[Pa]

Sorry to hear this, Steve. I'm now glad we made our trip up there last summer instead of this one.

And we've had an unusually wet, cool summer here so far after three years of drought. Weather cycles!