Fires are already erupting in Siberia this spring, sending billowing smoke into the western United States. One of the regions with the largest number of extinguished forest fires was in Omsk Oblast. Videos from the Siberian Times showed wildfires raging across the Omsk and Tyumen oblasts in Western Siberia, while satellite data showed several fires across the landscape beginning in the first half of April.
The dust should suppress Atlantic hurricane activity, at least temporarily.
Set against the austere peaks of the Western Brooks Range, the lake, looked like it was boiling. Its waters hissed, bubbled and popped as a powerful greenhouse gas escaped from the lake bed.
The concentration of the heat-trapping gas topped 420 parts per million, while the planet has warmed more than two degrees. This is the highest daily average concentration to be recorded. Data was collected at the Mauna Loa Observatory on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Severe snow and dust storms hit Mongolia over the weekend and earlier this week. Wind speeds reached 34 meters per second. The storms and blizzard resulted in the death of nine people and a five-year old child in Dundgovi Province. Hundreds of others have gone missing.
The McDonald Fire has grown to over 39,000 acres west of the Tanana River, with statewide fires consuming 72,000 acres; critical fire danger and smoke advisories are in effect.
The latest update put the Swan Lake fire’s size at 23,530 acres.
“It’s been hot, it’s been dry, and it’s been windy. And those winds gusts of 20 miles per hour, it’s kind of funneled through the Andreafsky River drainage,” said Beth Ipsen. Federal entities sent in more firefighters this week, and some residents are thinking about preparing their go-bags.
“Smoke concentrations will be such that they could impact public health at times, according to an advisory issued by the state Division of Air Quality.
A haze visible through Southcentral Alaska on Wednesday was caused by smoke from fires burning in Siberia that began flowing into Alaska in early July.
A smoke respite room has been set up at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. The Chandler Room on the first floor will be open 24 hours a day until further notice.
Anchorage saw temperatures spike above 60 degrees every day in June for the first time in recorded history. The city also experienced near record low precipitation: Only 1/10 of an inch of rain fell the entire month.
This season the birch pollen has been particularly bad. Some people with asthma have had to leave the state. The peak was May 18 when pollen counts were 974 grains per cubic meter.
Exhaust emissions from a Norwegian Cruise Line vessel docking in Juneau prompted at least 10 complaints to an Alaska regulatory agency.
Smoke from wildfires in Siberia drifted to Alaska last year as well, according to the National Weather Service, but Alaska already had hazy skies from local wildfires.
Shishaldin Volcano also erupted last month, sending ash over the Bering Sea.
Air Quality will vary between Good and Unhealthy depending on wind flow and proximity to the fire.-Southcentral areas near–Willow, Wasilla, Palmer, Butte, Anchorage, and south over the Kenai Peninsula to include Cooper Landing, Kenai Keys and Skilak Lake areas.
Spiking levels of birch pollen around much of the state are also being seen during an early spring in Anchorage this week, as doctors deal with an influx of allergy and asthma patients.
Increasing winds may drive the air quality to become "unhealthy to hazardous," said a statement from Eileen Probasco, planning director with the Matanuska-Sustina Borough.
The leak was detected early Friday at the drill site CD1, 8 miles north of the village of Nuiqsut. “There are no reports of injury or environmental impact to the tundra or wildlife,” the company’s statement said. “Air quality continues to be monitored and no natural gas has been detected outside of the CD1 pad.” The gas leak happened below gravel, and its cause and scale are under investigation, Conoco said. The company said it is using natural gas detection monitors at the CD1 pad, and conducting infrared surveys from the air.
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