Intense heat subsiding but smoke still here.
The heat is finally subsiding! Yaaaaaaaayyyyyyy! It was 90 or 91 degrees for days at our location. We set an all time high temp record as well as many daily records in the last two and a half weeks. The heat was awful and the smoke made it worse. The smoke comes and goes as the wind shifts and there is no end in sight for now. These pictures were taken on days when the smoke was not too bad but there was enough to create gorgeous sunset colors. When it is bad it limits visibility severly. It will be a relief to be able to function during the day. It was so bad we were becoming nocturnal since we have an air conditioner in one room we had to hide in there during the day and try to do everything else at night like eat, do laundry, go to the store etc. It was still in the 80's at midnight but much better than during the day.
There was a fire several miles from my in-law's home in Talkeetna and they had to get ready to evacuate. Then a few days later another fire started just a mile away from the first one! That one was even closer to them. Those fires are both under control at the moment due to over 150 fire fighters working to drop water, fire fighting foams, retardants, cut fire lines etc.
It got to at least 94 degrees up there. New high temperature records were set in many communities hundreds of miles away. The whole state has been under a gigantic high pressure dome that has locked out any cool air or precipitation. When I took the picture above I was excited to see clouds. The high pressure system was so strong we had no clouds in the sky.
This very strong system locking us in a heat wave for weeks, was due to a number of factors including the fact that we have less sea ice, higher ocean water temps and it happened to be the summer solstice so the long daylight hours mean the sun had more time to bake and warm up the air uninterrupted by darkness or clouds. Our hottest temperatures would come in the evening as the sun had all day to warm us up. Sunset was not until almost midnight when this started. Now, we have passed the period where we get no darkness and that is helping cool things off or at least not allow the sun to beat down for quite as long each day. The pictures here were taken around midnight on the last two nights. It actually gets a bit dark at night now by 2 AM which is strange. You can see there is not a cloud in the sky.
While hiding from the heat I tried to set up with my laptop but was so tired from the heat I fell asleep in the air conditioning doing keyword research.
Hopefully life can get back to normal now with the heat back to the 70's. Lawns and many plants are turning brown and dead from heat which never happens here so early in the summer. We have a TON of work to do on all the units with tenants needing things, vacancies to fill etc. Off we go.
Jessica
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That does not sound good Jessica. I live in the subtropics of Queensland Australia. We now suffer those temps for months on end. Even today in Mid winter its in the eighties. The last 5 years every month has been several degrees above average. Jim
I am sorry to hear that. Alaska is about 5 degrees above average all the time now. This last few weeks we were 25 degrees above our normal high temps.
Hope you continue to get relief from the fires. I'm in the Vancouver BC area and we've had major smoke for the last three summers here. It's not a good thing.
So glad you're getting back to normal.:)
Thanks. It was bad again today. Not nearly as bad as it was to the north though. The smoke was ranked Unhealthy for sensitive people here but "Hazardous" up there, which is the highest level.
Earthquakes in my home state of California are to be expected but heat in Alaska is just plain weird. Global warming.
Hope you cool off soon Jessica!
Well, highs in the 80's are normal for the interior part of the state where I grew up. I saw 100 once. On the coast here it is very unusual however. The water should moderate the temperature.
Yes, these extremes will become more common. It is pretty scary.
We had our 7.1 earthquake last year too.
Thanks Erica.
What a bad scene -- we are not meant to sustain such heat up here. I'm glad you posted, because it reminded me that I had a short but disturbing experience with the smoke.
I was scheduled for the dentist yesterday morning. After the dentist, I had to go to the hospital to have two long tests done. I wanted to get it all done in one day and have it over with.
Went in for the morning plane that would get me to Juneau for the dental appointment. The plane was cancelled. The reason: The smoke. It brought the visibility in Juneau down far enough that they couldn't fly.
I got there for the two hospital tests by taking the noon plane in. He flew quite high for a small plane to get over the smoky mountain terrain. I managed to get done in time to take the 4:30 flight home...glad it made it here and I didn't get stuck.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know the smoke is here as well.
I heard it was hot down there too Fran. I am glad you made it despite the smoke. I hope your tests went well.
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I am wondering where all this will end up! I am tracing these processes since I watched many years ago Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth".
Our planet is at high risk, more and more people feel it experiencing the consequences of climate changes.
An on top of this, president Trump continues to ignore the truth, acting as nothing is going on with our planet.
It is very frightening. I studied this for years in my graduate program in Marine and Coastal Climate Change. Alaska already has ocean acidification occurring, coastal erosion, receding glaciers, loss of sea ice, drought, insect infestations causing trees to die and thereby increasing forest fire danger and more. We have had sea bird die offs, and this year we have had many grey whales beach and die as well. This is occurring along the North Pacific but there have been several right here. I saw one of them.
Precisely! It's very frightening to me, as well. And I believe that climate changes are a problem #1 and should become the top priority in the agenda of the world, as nothing else is so urgent to start solving it.
Part of the reason the fires are so bad is due to the spruce bark beetle which kills the spruce trees. The warmer winters allow the beetles to survive whereas a colder winter would kill them off. So they are spreading like crazy. There are 6 trees in a neighbor's yard just one house away from us here. These are all tall spruce trees and they have all died in the last 2 years since we moved in here. I hope they cut them down and get rid of them since the beetles will spread through the whole town.
It is sad to see how this fine mechanism of nature has been imbalanced and is not anymore working as precisely as it should!