Timely rains help Alaska to a mild wildfire season so far

  • By Dan Joling
  • Wednesday, July 13, 2016 10:41pm
  • News

ANCHORAGE — A year after Alaska wildfires burned an area larger than Massachusetts, the state is on course for a mild fire year in 2016.

Alaska on Sunday passed its unofficial “conversion date,” when the wildfire season begins to wind down and fire officials offer underused assets such as fire crews and water-scooping aircraft to other states or Canada.

A typical Alaska fire season is a million or two acres burned and last year saw 7,969 square miles, or 5.1 million acres, scorched. As of Wednesday morning, just 217 square miles, fewer than 139,000 acres, had burned in 2016.

ADVERTISEMENT
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 0%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
00:00
00:00
 

“Last year at this point we were closing in on 4.2 million acres,” said Tim Mowry, spokesman for the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center in Fairbanks.

State and federal firefighters moved quickly to limit the state’s 370 fires, Mowry said, but that doesn’t explain a 4-million acre difference, he said. Fortuitous weather is a better explanation.

“The weather has been such that it just hasn’t been conducive to getting the ignitions and having those fires persist like they did last year,” Mowry said.

Memorial Day Weekend was hot and dry. The weather since has lacked extended dry periods. In much of the state, high pressure has been followed by low pressure carrying precipitation.

“It’s been perfect for not getting fire starts,” Mowry said.

Last year was drier. The season kicked off with fires near Willow and on the Kenai Peninsula that burned less than 13 square miles each. However, they consumed homes and required hundreds of firefighting personnel to keep them from causing additional damage.

Activity got busier last summer during a memorable week of lightning strikes. From June 17-21, Alaska recorded 60,000 lightning strikes that lit 295 fires. That’s too much fire to deal with, Mowry said. Fires were ranked and resources poured into the ones with the highest priority.

“We were just chasing our tail for the tail for the rest of the summer because there was so much fire,” he said.

Fires in 2016 have paced themselves.

“This year, it’s seems like we’ve had one fire at a time,” Mowry said.

Fire season in Alaska is typically busiest in late May and June. In a typical year, things change after July 10.

“That denotes when things start to wind down, or when the weather pattern changes,” he said.

Alaska starts to get a southwest flow of air, bringing moisture from the North Pacific. The likelihood of wildlands igniting, or of fire persisting, is reduced, Mowry said.

“We’re losing daylight every day now. The burning period is reduced every day now because of that. Temperatures typically are not as warm. We’re getting dew at night,” he said.

Anticipating a slowdown, Alaska is offering to other states an air tanker that can drop retardant. Given the state’s budget woes, the Division of Forestry would be happy to shift the daily lease cost of $55,000.

“We would like to do that if possible this year,” Mowry said, “because we’re in dire straits financially.”

More in News

Kenai City Manager Terry Eubank speaks during Kenai’s State of the City presentation at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center in Kenai, Alaska, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Services, projects spotlighted at Kenai’s State of the City

Mayor Brian Gabriel and City Manager Terry Eubank delivered the seventh annual address.

The Homer Public Library. File photo
In wake of executive order, peninsula libraries, museums brace for funding losses

Trump’s March 14 executive order may dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services “to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

Cracks split the siding outside of Soldotna High School on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022 in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
SoHi siding, Hope roof repair projects move forward

The Soldotna project has been reduced from its original scope.

Jacob Caldwell, chief executive officer of Kenai Aviation, stands at the Kenai Aviation desk at the Kenai Municipal Airport on Thursday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Kenai, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Kenai Aviation selected to provide air service to Seward

Scheduled flights between Seward and Anchorage will begin May 1.

Monte Roberts, left, and Greg Brush, right, raise their hands during an emergency meeting of the Kenai River Special Management Area Advisory Board’s guide committee at the Kenai Peninsula Region Office of Alaska State Parks near Soldotna, Alaska, on Feb. 25, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
KRSMA board pushes back on new guide stipulations, calls for public process

Stipulations 32 and 40 were included in an updated list emailed to Kenai River guides.

KPBSD Board of Education member Patti Truesdell speaks during a town hall meeting hosted by three Kenai Peninsula legislators in the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly Chambers in Soldotna, Alaska, on Saturday, March 29, 2025. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Education hot topic at local legislative town hall

More than 100 people attended a three-hour meeting where 46 spoke.

The Soldotna Field House is seen on a sunny Monday, March 31, 2025, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Field house work session set for April 9

A grand opening for the facility is slated for Aug. 16.

HEX President and CEO John Hendrix is photographed at Furie’s central processing facility in Nikiski, Alaska, on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
Furie announces new lease to use Hilcorp rig, will drill this spring

A jack-up rig is a mobile platform that can be transported and deployed in different areas.

The ORPC proposed American Tidal Energy Project site is located at East Forland, Cook Inlet, just north of Nikiski, Alaska. Photo provided by ORPC
Marine energy developer pursues Cook Inlet tidal project

ORPC recently filed a draft pilot license application for a tidal energy project site near Nikiski.

Most Read