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 marine mammal was seen some 600 miles from where the river empties into the Bering Sea.

In the Glenallen area, Yukon and Kuskokwim River communities, and Northwest Arctic floodwaters caused by snow melt and rapid warming have caused many communities to be flooded.

Twenty-three of the 25 fires so far this year were ignited by human activity. While this year’s heavy snowpack and cold spring pushed back the start to fire season in many parts of the state, climate change is generally causing an earlier snowmelt, said climatologist Rick Thoman.

Anchorage-based photographer saw something wild — a sudden, bright light on the northern horizon that quickly started to take on a spiral shape as it drew nearer. The spiral “appears to be rocket engine exhaust from a SpaceX Transporter-7 mission that launched on the Falcon 9 about three hours earlier in California.”

The second-worst flood on record in the Interior Alaska community of Manley Hot Springs began to recede on Sunday, but dozens of residents were displaced and cut off from power. Flooding is also reported in Sleetmute, Red Devil and Georgetown on the Kuskokwim River and Circle on the Yukon River.

“Right now the people who have dogs in their yards are very concerned. This is happening at night when it’s dark, so everybody is on edge.” - Tanana First Chief

An official temperature of minus 65 was recorded 15 miles northeast of Manley Hot Springs, according to the National Weather Service. It is the coldest official temperature in Alaska since

The No. 1 problem is ticks, according to Gerlach. Different tick species have been turing up in recent years in Alaska, apparently because they now are able to live and thrive in the current warmer climate around the circumpolar north.

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.

To varying degrees, nearly the entire state was warmer than normal this July, according to a weather expert.

Moose and other species have advanced north with warming temperatures. University of Alaska Fairbanks assistant professor of water and environmental research Ken Tape said movement of boreal species into far northern Alaska has corresponded over the last century with earlier snow-melt and river ice out.

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.

Least Surprising News: Another Warm Month in Alaska

Yukon subsistence fishermen face challenges with gear restrictions, closures, and reports of salmon potentially infected with ichthyophonus, impacting their summer fishing activities.

Dr. Kimberlee Beckmen, the sole veterinarian with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, has investigated 48 tick infestations in the past three years. She’s found evidence that two exotic species are established and reproducing in Alaska.

Mosquito populations are way up in Southcentral Alaska this year. Extremely high numbers are also reported from interior Alaska.

With a sickening thud, another hefty and handsome salmon lands in the waste barrel, headed for the dogs .