Alaska hit with record high temperatures Wave Fuels Wildfires & Dangerous Smoke, Melts Glaciers

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Alaska's heat wave is driving wildfires and melting glaciers, choking the state’s biggest cities with smoke and bloating rivers with meltwater. In Anchorage, home to about 40 percent of Alaskans, the National Weather Service issued a dense smoke advisory on Sunday warning against prolonged outdoor activity, along with advisories for the elderly and the sick to stay indoors.The Swan Lake wildfire in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, which has burned since a June 5 lightning strike and consumed more than 68,000 acres, prompted the National Weather Service to issue a dense smoke advisory. March 2019 began with an unsettled weather pattern that brought warm, wet storms to the state, according to the Alaska Climate Research Center. By mid-month, a high-pressure ridge developed and stayed in place for weeks, producing mostly clear skies and very warm temperatures. The average temperature for March 2019 set records at 10 of 19 ground-based weather stations in Alaska. Utqiaġvik (Barrow)—the northernmost town in the United States—saw its hottest March in more than 100 years. The town’s average high temperature in March is usually -12.6 degrees Fahrenheit (-24.7° Celsius). But in March 2019, the temperature averaged 5.9° Fahrenheit. Delta Junction, Fairbanks, and many towns broke temperature records. (You can see a list here.) The “warm” month in Utqiaġvik did not mean it was a dry month. In March 2019, the town received more than four times the normal amount of rain and twice the amount of snow. Alaska’s Heat Wave Fuels Wildfires and Dangerous Smoke, Melts Glaciers The Rainbow 2 Fire burning approximately 15 miles west of Delta Junction and west of the Tanana River near Delta Creek, Alaska June 29, 2019 courtesy of Alaska Division of Forestry. Alaska Division of Forestry/Handout via REUTERS "This very warm weather, on top of the warm May, the very early snowmelt, then we had those two weeks of lightning strikes, it’s the classic setup," Thoman said. Melting glaciers and mountain snowfields are bloating rivers and streams across a large swath of south central Alaska, the NWS said. The melt has brought water levels to flood stage at the Yentna River northwest of Anchorage on Sunday, said NWS forecaster Bob Clay.