Anchorage, Alaska — Alaska has had its slowest start to the wildfire season in three decades — a year after scorching nearly enough land to cover Connecticut and even further threatening remote Alaska Native communities on the tundra Got a big relief.
Because of a cool, wet summer, wildfires have burned only one and a half times more than New York’s Central Park so far this year.
“If you want a recipe for mild fire weather in Alaska, we’ve really checked all those boxes so far this summer,” said Brian Brettschneider, climate scientist for the National Weather Service.
This is very different from last year, when the state was hit by fires that were rarely or never seen.
Lightning in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in southwest Alaska, an area made up primarily of tundra, threatened two Alaska Native villages with about 700 residents before firefighters extinguished the blaze. A subdivision of the community of Anderson was evacuated for three weeks as smoke from the fire enveloped Denali National Park and Preserve, one of the state’s top tourist destinations.
A house was destroyed and several seasonal cabins were destroyed in that fire. The only death in last year’s fires occurred when a helicopter pilot carrying equipment to aid firefighters died in a crash.
In total, last year’s fires burned an area of 4,844 square miles (12,545 square kilometers) – just a little less than the size of Connecticut. Of course, Alaska is huge; According to the tourism website alaska.org, Connecticut can fit 118 bars within it.
The favorable weather this season is due to an upper level trough of low pressure over the Bering Sea and western Alaska. It’s bringing cool air, boosting clouds and encouraging the arrival of moisture from the Gulf of Alaska, Brettschneider said, which helps keep plants from drying out.
Firefighters employed by state and federal agencies aren’t sitting around lamenting that they don’t have fires to fight, said Sam Harrell, spokesman for the Alaska Forestry Division. The state is using funds from the infrastructure bill to divert fuel to prevent future fires, he said.
Alaska also sent about 100 firefighters to help with wildfires raging in neighboring Canada.
One drawback to the cooler, more humid summer is that some Alaska residents are missing out on the traditionally short summer season. Anchorage photographer Eberhard Brunner, 85, wore a raincoat while photographing swans at the city’s Westchester Lagoon on Thursday.
“It should be nice and sunny in the 70s,” Brunner said. “If the weather keeps me indoors, I’ll never be able to get out.”
Naomi Repena-Tuiao, a Honolulu native who is working in downtown Anchorage on her summer break from college in Nebraska, wishes it was a little warmer.
“It’s very cold,” he said from under a large red umbrella. She stood outside in the rain for nearly seven hours carrying tourists to a trolley. His shoes were wet and he was wearing two jackets.
Anchorage has gone above 70 °F (21.1 °C) only once this year.
Even though conditions are now conducive to a shorter fire season, Brettschneider said that could change quickly.
The state is still about 10 days away from the historic peak of the lightning season – last year, an astonishing 61,000 lightning strikes were recorded from July 5-11 – and only a few days of sunshine to provide fuel for it, Requires windy, dry weather. Forest fire.
“Things can change once in a while, but so far so good,” he said.
Fire season in Alaska typically ends in late August.
