Soaking Rains

Courtesy of the Alaska-Pacific RFC

The Fairbanks area has received a good soaking the past few days as moist air from Siberia streamed eastward. Because rainfall had been running below normal this summer, rivers have had some, but not dramatic rises. Here's the hydrograph from the Chena River at Fairbanks.

Five day rainfalls include:

Keystone Ridge: 1.40"
Fairbanks Airport: 1.29"
Eielson AFB: 0.99"

Waning Summer

We're now past the half way point in July and the fire season remains very slow. While not over, at this point it is very likely that this will be one of the slower seasons in the past 25 years. As of Tuesday, 206,000 acres had burned in Alaska, about 45,000 acres less than than last year at this point in the season. The biggest fire was the Uvgoon Creek fire, east of Noatak, at almost 44,000 arces. There were no staffed fires as of Tuesday. As is usual for this time of year, lightning actively has slowed dramatically in the past week, with just 20 strikes in Alaska Monday, all north of Fort Yukon.

Thunder at Barrow

Image Courtesy of the FAA

A line of thunderstorms popped up just east of Barrow late Sunday afternoon.At the National Weather Service Office in Barrow, a few rumbles of thunder were heard, though there was no rain at Barrow from these cells. The Alaska Fire Service's lightning detection network recorded a couple of strikes just southeast Dease Inlet. This image from the FAA at 516pm AST (with a very dirty lens) shows something of the cells.