Alaska fire crews battling 2 large tundra wildfires
Source: AP
By RACHEL D'ORO
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) After a winter marked by little snow and warmer temperatures, fire crews in Alaska are tackling two large wildfires burning on mostly treeless tundra in the southwest part of the state.
Weekend rain helped tamp down the lightning-caused fires that, through Monday, have burned 63 square miles in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge.
Fish and Wildlife Service fire ecologist Lisa Saperstein says Alaska gets fewer fires in tundra than in forests, but adds they are not unheard of.
She says tundra fires are more common in southwest Alaska, but rare above the Arctic Circle. The current fires are burning about 400 miles below the Arctic Circle.
FULL short breaking story at link.
In this Sunday, June 7, 2015 photo, smoke rises from the Bogus Creek Fire, one of two fires burning in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Alaska. Fire managers said Monday that weekend rain helped tamp down the fires which, together, total about 63 square miles. (Matt Snyer/Alaska Division of Forestry via AP
In this Sunday, June 7, 2015 photo, smoke rises from the Bogus Creek Fire, one of two fires burning in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Alaska. Fire managers said Monday that weekend rain helped tamp down the fires which, together, total about 63 square miles. (Matt Snyer/Alaska Division of Forestry via AP)
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c937c75f58844442b8f9af7b0b96d62b/alaska-fire-crews-battling-2-large-tundra-wildfires
Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)Fire season is kind of early this year, but it's been fairly damp the past week or so, so hopefully things won't get out of control, like last year's Funny River fire and 2004-2005 when 11 million acres burned.
NickB79
(19,236 posts)Just another positive-feedback mechanism at work that guarantees our civilization is well and truly fucked.
Humans warm the climate, thawing and drying the permafrost.
Permafrost burns, releasing CO2 and methane in massive quantities.
Released CO2 and methane amplify global warming, thawing even more permafrost.
MORE permafrost burns........
I wonder if I'll still be able to post on DU from my post-apocalyptic doomsday bunker.