The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured an image of thick wildfire smoke swirling over the state on 8 July 2019. Meteorologists in Fairbanks reported visibility had dropped to less than one mile due to smoke, and air quality sensors in the city reported skyrocketing levels of particulates in the air. Photo: NASA Earth Observatory

Baked Alaska: State endures warmest month on record in July 2019

By Christopher C. Burt 9 August 2019 (Weather Underground) – July 2019 was the warmest month on record for the state of Alaska, smashing the previous record by almost one full degree Fahrenheit and leaving numerous local records for hottest day and warmest month in the superheated dust. Records for statewide average temperatures date back […]

Daily sea ice conventration analysis for 27 July 2019. Graphic: NWS Alaska Sea Ice Program

Record-breaking European heat wave heads north, massive melting likely in Arctic – “This actually primes things for more sea ice loss later, on the order of weeks”

By Bob Henson 29 July 2019 (Weather Underground) – Over the next few days, meltwater will cascade across the Greenland Ice Sheet, and sea ice will dissolve into the Arctic Ocean in amounts that could be unprecedented for late July and early August. The same air mass that led to the sharpest, hottest heat wave ever […]

Wildfire at about 64°N in the Mirninsky District of the Sakha Republic, Russia, 22 July 2019. Photo: Copernicus Sentinel-2 / Pierre Markuse

More than 100 Arctic wildfires burn in worst-ever fire season – Smoke plumes from huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska visible from space – “These are some of the biggest fires on the planet, with a few appearing to be larger than 100,000 hectares”

By Edward Helmore 26 July 2019 (The Guardian) – The Arctic is suffering its worst wildfire season on record, with huge blazes in Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska producing plumes of smoke that can be seen from space. The Arctic region has recorded its hottest June ever. Since the start of that month, more than 100 wildfires have […]

Satellite view of a wildfire in Qeqqata Kommunia, Greenland, 13 July 2019. Photo: Pierre Markuse / Copernicus EU

Photo gallery: Satellite view of “unprecedented” Arctic wildfires, July 2019

By Brian Kahn 18 July 2019 (Gizmodo) – Vast stretches of Earth’s northern latitudes are on fire right now. Hot weather has engulfed a huge portion of the Arctic, from Alaska to Greenland to Siberia. That’s helped create conditions ripe for wildfires, including some truly massive ones burning in remote parts of the region that […]

GFS 2-meter temperature anomaly forecast for Alaska on 6 July 2019. Graphic: Tropical Tidbits

Anchorage, Alaska roasts in 90°F heat, smashing all-time record by 5°F

By Dr. Jeff Masters 5 July 2019 (Weather Underground) – The temperature in Alaska’s largest city of Anchorage soared to an astonishing 90°F on Thursday, July 4, smashing the city’s previous all-time heat record by a remarkable 5°F. Anchorage’s average high temperature for July 4 is 65°F; records for Anchorage date back to 1952. All-time […]

The jet stream wanders around Alaska, trapping a record-breaking heatwave over Anchorage, 3 July 2019. Graphic: The Weather Channel

Alaska could see all-time temperature record today in “unbelievable” heat wave – “It’s not just the magnitude of the heat, it’s how long it will last”

By John Bacon 4 July 2019 (USA TODAY) – Alaska’s biggest city won’t be marking the nation’s 243rd birthday with fireworks displays as Anchorage struggles with dry conditions, wildfires and what could become the hottest day on record. The city’s all-time high temperature record of 85 degrees dates back 50 years. It could fall today, with a […]

Permafrost forms a grid-like pattern in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska in Alpine, Alaska, a 22.8 million acre region managed by the Bureau of Land Management on Alaska's North Slope. USGS has periodically assessed oil and gas resource potential there. Photo: David Houseknecht / USGS

Warming Arctic permafrost releasing 12 times more nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, than previously thought – “This needs to be taken more seriously than it is right now”

By Caitlin McDermott-Murphy 6 June 2019 (The Harvard Gazette) – About a quarter of the Northern Hemisphere is covered in permafrost. Now, it turns out these permanently frozen beds of soil, rock, and sediment are actually not so permanent: They’re thawing at an increasing rate. Human-induced climate change is warming these lands, melting the ice […]

Warming stripes for Washington state, 1895-2018. Graphic: Climate Central

Show your stripes: Iconic global warming imagery goes local

By Bob Henson 20 June 2019 (Weather Underground) – The summer solstice arrives on Friday, 21 June 2019, and so does the second year of “warming stripes”. Launched in 2018, this growing campaign builds on a set of imagery developed by University of Reading climate scientist Ed Hawkins: colored stripes that portray a century-plus of global […]

Erosion in Akiak, Alaska swallowed 75 to 100 feet of Kuskokwim River banks along the village on 20 May 2019. Photo: Ivan Ivan / City of Akiak / KYUK News

Alaska is melting and it’s likely to accelerate global heating – “Every year there’s a new temperature record, it’s getting worse and worse and you feel like a broken record saying it”

By Oliver Milman 14 June 2019 (The Guardian) – A city in western Alaska has lost a huge stretch of riverbank to erosion that may turn it into an island, amid renewed warnings from scientists over the havoc triggered by the accelerating melting of the state’s ice and permafrost. Residents of the small city of […]

It’s not your imagination: Allergy season gets worse every year – Pollen allergy seasons continue to get longer and more intense as temperatures rise

By Umair Irfan 21 May 2019 (Vox) – The weather is warming. The flowers are blooming. Noses are running. Eyes are watering. It’s allergy season, and this year it’s been severe in states like Georgia, and cities like Chicago, where the frigid winter delayed the onset. Now that it’s late May, we’re moving away from peak tree […]

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