Deadliest nightmare comes true with the Alaska wildfires

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Alaska is experiencing one of the deadliest wildfires till date which has covered half of the region. The normally clear sky was filled with smoke and pushed to an extreme unhealthy category by the United States Geological survey.

It is the largest wildfire in decades where areas majorly regarded as fireproof are mostly ripped, blazed and wiped out. Many believe this is going to impact the wildlife of the forest like never before.

The smoke blew hundreds of miles up to the Bering Sea community of Nome. Already more than 530 wildfires have burned an area the size of Connecticut. However, it is worth noting that little property has been damaged. But in some areas, residents have been forced to evacuate and one person has been killed. A helicopter pilot died last month when he crashed while attempting to carry a load of equipment for firefighters.

Wildfires in Alaska are not something very rare these days. In 2004, the acreage burned by mid-July was about the same as now, But by the time that fire season ended, 10,156 square miles (26,304 square kilometres) were charred.

Rick Thoman who is a climate specialist at the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska’s International Arctic Research Center said that the frequency of these events has absolutely doubled since the second of the 20th century. He further added the point that there are more reasons to think that it is going to continue.

There have been 145000 lighting strikes in Alaska and in the adjacent areas of Canada. The data has been counted by the Bureau of Land Management. 42% occurred between July 5-11. The rain poured down soon after but 50 more fires also started immediately.

Hot and dry weather has burned nearly 3 million acres in Alaska. Among the series of fires, this last one is the sixth worst wildfire recorded in recent times. More than 2000 firefighters have been engaged in the evaporation task. With global warming surging so rapidly there are few possibilities of this stopping soon.

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