Why Alaska’s Wildfire Season Was So Unusual
America’s 2022 wildfire season is off to a relatively calm start, with one big exception: Alaska. Right now, the country overall sits above its 10-year average for annual acres burned, but more than half of that is from the 3 million acres that were scorched earlier this summer in the northernmost state.
To some degree, that’s not unusual. Fire season typically starts and ends earlier in Alaska than in the Lower 48, kicking off in late May and running through July. (Although who really knows what constitutes fire season for the continental U.S. anymore? Colorado logged its most destructive fire on record in the final days of December 2021.)
Despite the state’s icy reputation, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of acres typically roast each year. Alaska, it’s worth is classified as boreal forest (very cold forest), which is evolutionarily designed to burn (and does so not uncommonly). This past fire season ranks just seventh in terms of total acres burned.
