Annie Feidt, Alaska’s Energy Desk

In Alaska, meteorological conditions over a relatively short period of time drive the propensity for fires to start and spread.

May weather can’t tell us much about what the rest of the summer will hold in Southcentral Alaska.

If you imagine a chart, ‘peak summer’ is the top of the annual temperature curve or the warmest part of the year. In Interior Alaska, that peak happens much earlier than most of the rest of the country.

The outlook for June, July and August is for warmer than average temperatures for most of Alaska.

In Utqiaġvik, the summer is longer than the winter by several weeks. The community has 84 days with 24 hour sunlight and only 65 days with no sunrise in winter.

Fairbanks is the only community in the state with an historical record tracking the “green up” date. And this year, it was right on schedule.