Alaska is now past its historical peak of the wildland fire season and current and forecasted conditions are pointing to a below-normal fire season for the state, according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center’s Predictive Services desk.
Significant rainfall in many parts of the state during the last half of June moderated fire activity and saturated fuel layers, Moore said. As a result, many of the more than 80 active wildfires around the state are simply smoldering or no longer showing activity.
“Right now, we don’t have the fuels to support a lot of fire growth on the ground and we would need at least a week, maybe 10 days or more, of warming and drying to put a lot of areas in the state into having the duff dry enough to start supporting more intense fire behavior that has been isolated this year,” Moore said.