The Tustumena Lake fire in Alaska is 25% contained, with efforts including smokejumpers and over 56,000 gallons of water deployed to combat the 35-acre blaze.
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.
On June 19, 2015, a slow-moving low-pressure system with spectacular thunderstorms that produced little rain began making its way through Alaska. By the time the storms finally petered out about a week later, 61,000 bolts of lightning had been unleashed on a boreal forest in the state. No one had ever seen anything quite like it, not even in 2004, when 8,500 lightning strikes were recorded in a single day.
It’s a vicious cycle: As the weather warms, the Earth’s permafrost is melting, releasing greenhouse gases that are going to make the planet even hotter.
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