Two villages along the Lower Yukon River have begun evacuating their most vulnerable residents from a tundra fire.The fire late Thursday was burning less than eight miles from St Mary’s and nearby Pitkas Point, and wind continues spreading the flames closer to the villages with a combined population of over 700 people. Yute Commuter Service is sending all its planes to St. Mary’s to evacuate residents, and Grant Aviation is prepared to assist.
Lytton, British Columbia, broke successive Canadian heat records early this week, with temperatures peaking at 121 degrees on Tuesday. Then the fires swept in.
It’s not often that Southcentral Alaska residents wake to thunder in the middle of the night. But what forecasters are calling an unusual storm moved from the Talkeetna Mountains into the Matanuska Valley and then Anchorage and south to the Kenai Peninsula from Wednesday night into Thursday morning. At least one lightning-caused structure fire was reported.
“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.
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.
Much of Siberia this year has had unseasonably high temperatures, leading to sizable wildfires.
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.
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.
The latest update put the Swan Lake fire’s size at 23,530 acres.
As of Monday evening, no structures had been damaged in the Munson Creek Fire, which was less than a half mile from the popular resort.
“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.
The highway remained closed north of Willow after the fire jumped the road Sunday, authorities said. The fire started Saturday afternoon when wind blew a tree onto a power line.
It’s not dangerous at this point to drive on the Sterling Highway, though smoke may reduce visibility.
The city is so parched and hot that even a cigarette tossed into a pile of fluffy cottonwood fiber could ignite a fire.
The haze is expected to subside by the middle of next week, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said.
The wildfires can burrow into rich organic material, such as the vast peatlands that ring the Arctic, and smolder under the snowpack throughout the frigid winter.
More than a month’s worth of rain has soaked parts of the state in just a few days, setting records.
The fire had reached 90% containment by Thursday evening, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry.
Federal fire bosses are plotting a strategy to battle an unusually large early season wildland fire once it leaves military lands.
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.
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