Two individuals died in separate fires in Mat-Su, with one victim found outside his home after escaping the blaze, potentially succumbing to extreme cold.
The smoke is from numerous wildfires burning in Canada’s Yukon Territory.
October flew by leaving us with a couple of light snowfalls. November came around with something slightly more impressive, but it wasn't the same. Mid December decided to make up for all of the snowfalls that we missed all at once, it seems like.
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.
The fire also comes as the state of Alaska enters its second highest level of fire preparedness, based on the high number of wildfires burning statewide and the possibility for more.
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.
Parts of Interior and Southcentral Alaska will see poor air quality as a result of wildfires this week, the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation warned on Tuesday.
The haze is expected to subside by the middle of next week, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service said.
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 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.
The city is so parched and hot that even a cigarette tossed into a pile of fluffy cottonwood fiber could ignite a fire.
The fire had reached 90% containment by Thursday evening, according to the Alaska Division of Forestry.
Smoke from wildfires in Alaska could cause very unhealthy air quality conditions and low visibility over the weekend in Anchorage, the state's largest city, officials said.
The latest update put the Swan Lake fire’s size at 23,530 acres.
“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.
Wet weather has brought much-needed relief to the ongoing effort to control the McHugh Creek fire in southeast Anchorage. Listen now
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.
Unseasonably warm, dry weather in a large section of the state set the stage for a roughly 20-acre wildfire near Palmer and kept authorities across Southcentral and Interior Alaska busy putting out backyard fires despite ongoing warnings against open burning.
Smoke from dozens of active wildfires in Southwest Alaska moved across a large portion of the state on Sunday, worsening the visibility and air quality in several regions, including around Anchorage and Southcentral. The haze in the Anchorage area was expected to ease somewhat early in the week.
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