Unfortunately for Fairbanks, almost a third of the acreage has accrued in the nearby McDonald fire, and air quality was atrocious in town yesterday, with the visibility reported as low as 1/4 mile at the airport. The last time the visibility was that low from smoke (not fog) was way back in 2005.
The following chart illustrates the relationship between the 7-day increase in statewide fire acreage and the weekly-mean high temperature in Fairbanks. For reference, the latest 7-day mean high temperature in Fairbanks was 81.6°F.
Of course there's much more to fire growth than just high temperature - there have been large acreage increases with quite chilly temperatures in the past - but the warmest weeks do tend to produce at least moderately large acreage gains, as we would expect.
