Suppression efforts are focused on the southern section of the fire to protect nearby communities. Fire crews have 50% of that portion of the fire contained.
Weather
Record warm water likely gave Kuskokwim salmon heart attacks
Never-before-seen temperatures in the Kuskokwim River likely sent salmon into cardiac arrest. Salmon don’t function well past 70 degrees, and the water had pushed just above that limit.
Juneau officials lift borough-wide ‘air emergency’
Anecdotal reports attribute this week’s poor air quality to respiratory problems and canceled hiking tours, though a Bartlett Regional Hospital official says activity there hasn’t been out of the ordinary.
Add krill and mussels to the list of unusual marine deaths in Alaska
Residents from two Northwest Alaska villages say they found large numbers of dead mussels and krill washed up along shores in June, contributing to fears that record warm waters may be causing a wide range of ecosystem changes.
Juneau city officials declare ‘air emergency’
Juneau’s air quality in recent days has wafted between the EPA’s orange and red benchmarks. The city is discouraging outdoor aerobic activity until the air quality improves.
Juneau residents asked to conserve water as dry conditions persist
The conservation notice applies to residents from Lemon Creek to Tee Harbor, including all of the Mendenhall Valley, who get their drinking water from the Salmon Creek Reservoir water station.
Updated: Anchorage wildfire forces evacuations
The Campbell Park Fire was first reported Tuesday afternoon and quickly grew to 15 acres, causing a small evacuation effort. By about 8 p.m, an Anchorage official said crews were confident they had the fire largely under control.
Juneau haziness on Sunday due to Alaskan and Canadian wildfires
“We just had a continuous northerly flow from that direction and the smoke just finally permeated into the northern part of the panhandle at the higher altitudes,” Brian Bezenek of the Juneau office of the National Weather Service.
Swan Lake fire grows, moving closer to Sterling Highway
The fire has been burning since early June in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge. This past weekend, winds spread the fire to within 2 miles of the Sterling Highway.
In a rainforest, Southeast Alaska towns face extreme drought
Believe it or not, one of the worst droughts in the nation right now is in Southeast Alaska. Meanwhile, cities like Wrangell are struggling to keep up with summer water demand.