Image: Dan Jolingbiologist who oversees the agency’s annual
Bering Sea groundfish survey, was on a trawler
east of the island of Saint Matthew during the
first week of July.
“The temperature out there for us was in the
high 70s,” Britt said. “On those boats, everything
up there is designed to conserve heat, not vent
heat. It was unbearably warm inside the boat.”
On the ocean bottom, Britt’s crew for the second
consecutive year found scant evidence of a “cold
pool,” the east-west barrier of extremely cold,
salty water that traditionally concentrates Pacific
cod and walleye pollock, the species that make
fast-food fish sandwiches, in the southeastern
Bering Sea.
Alaska’s wildfire season started in April. July’s dry
and hot temperatures extended it. An expected
rainy season marked by southwest winds
pushing up moisture and soaking fires did not
show up on time, said Tim Mowry, spokesman
for the state Division of Forestry.
“It extended our fire season through the month
of July,” Mowry said.
Alaska by mid-July can usually free up crews
to fight fires in other states, but only about
15 people have left this year. High fire danger
around Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula and
the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has kept crews
in Alaska.
“We’ve pretty much held on to all our resources
in-state at this point,” Mowry said.
A burn ban and water sprinkler restrictions
remain in place for Haines, just outside the
Tongass National Forest. July extended a
drought in the rainforest, said Rick Thoman,
another climate expert at the International
Arctic Research Center.