It’s actually a two-part question: Are thunderstorms occurring more often now in places that used to rarely get them? I think the answer is unequivocally “yes.” Is the total number of strikes increasing? We don’t know, because the networks tracking lightning strikes today are far more sensitive than in the past. The interior had about 18,000 strikes over two days in early July.Īre lightning storms like this becoming more frequent? So, with the lightning storms, it’s no surprise that we’re now seeing many fires in the region. In Alaska’s interior, much of the area has been abnormally dry since late April. So, the weather factors – the warm spring, low snowpack and unusual thunderstorm activity – combined with multidecade warming that has allowed vegetation to grow in southwest Alaska, together fuel an active fire season. Global warming has also increased the amount of fuels – the plants and trees that are available to burn. An outbreak of thunderstorms there in late May and early June provided the spark. Then we had a warm spring, and southwest Alaska dried out. Why is Alaska seeing so many fires this year?Įarly in the season, southwest Alaska was one of the few areas in the state with below normal snowpack. Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the International Arctic Research Center in Fairbanks, explains why Alaska is seeing so many large, intense fires this year and how the region’s fire season is changing. By early July, that number was well over 2 million acres, more than twice the acreage of a typical Alaska fire season. By mid-June 2022, over 1 million acres had burned. The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Īlaska is on pace for another historic wildfire year, with its fastest start to the fire season on record.
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