Alaska Is on Pace for Another Historic Fire Season

The following essay is covered in The Conversation, an online publication.

Alaska has the fastest start to the fire season on record. Over one million acres had burned by the end of June. The number was more than double that of a typical Alaska fire season.

Alaska is seeing a lot of large, intense fires this year and how the region's fire season is changing.

Why is there so much fire in Alaska?

There isn't a single answer.

Southwest Alaska was one of the few places in the state that had below normal snow. Southwest Alaska dried out after a warm spring. There was an outbreak of storms in May and June.

The amount of fuels has increased as a result of global warming. More fuel increases the intensity of fires.

There are a number of factors that contribute to an active fire season in southwest Alaska.

In Alaska, most of the area has been dry. The lightning storms have caused many fires in the region. Over the course of two days in July, the interior had about 18,000 strikes.

Is lightning storms getting more frequent?

That is a million dollar question.

There is a question about whether or not there are more storms in places that used to be rare. The answer is definitely yes. The number of strikes may be increasing. The networks that track lightning strikes are much more sensitive than in the past.

Thunderstorms in Alaska aren't associated with weather fronts like they are in most of the Lower 48. They are called air mass or pulseThunderstorms. The temperature difference between the lower and middle atmospheres is one factor that drives them.

You can get intense storms in a warming world if the air holds more water. We get more storms in interior Alaska. There has been an increase in the number of days with storms recorded at the airport. They agree that they are seeing more storms.

The fires were hotter. What are the changes in the fires?

More fuel, more lightning strikes, higher temperatures, lower humidity combine to fuel fires that burn hotter and burn deeper into the ground, so instead of just scorching the trees and burning the undergrowth, they're consuming everything, and you're left with this moonscape of ash

When the fire turns the cones to ash, the cones can't be reproduced. People who have been fighting fire in the field for decades say they are amazed at the destruction they see today.

The fire situation has changed over the course of thousands of years. In Alaska, the number of million-acre fires has doubled.

What effect are these fires having on the population?

Smoke is one of the most common impacts on humans.

Most of the fires in Alaska aren't burning through populated areas. It travels long distances when you burn 2 million acres because you are burning a lot of trees.

There was a lot of fire activity north of Lake Iliamna. dense smoke was transported hundreds of miles when the winds blew from the southeast. The air quality index at the hospital in Nome exceeded 600 parts per million for PM 2.5, a pollutant that can cause asthma and harm the lungs. Anything over 150 parts per million is not healthy and anything over 400 parts per million is dangerous.

Other risks are present. Flying people out of rural Alaska when a fire threatens can happen.

Pressure on firefighting resources is caused by worse fire seasons. Alaska counts on fire crews from the lower 48 states and other countries to fight fires. When there was a big fire season in Alaska, crews would come up from the lower 48. There aren't as many resources available during the wildfire season.

The conversation published this article. The original article is worth a read.