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.

Micah Hahn, an assistant professor of environmental health at the University of Alaska Anchorage, says while it might seem obvious that wildfire smoke causes health impacts, there had actually never been a nuanced, scientific look at those impacts. The biggest impact was for asthma-related emergency department visits. This was really across the board and across age groups and in geographic areas.