Greetings to all! If you're in America or Canada, I hope you're enjoying the holiday week!
The hot weather is continuing to pummel Alaska, with record high temperatures being set across our Arctic state. While the sunshine can be nice, it hasn't been good news for our forests, and our air quality. Wildfires have been burning across the region, one such fire has dumped smoke into the Anchorage area several times over the past couple of weeks. Luckily, that fire is on the other side of the mountains.
However, we had a scare yesterday when a brushfire started within one of the city's greenbelts. You could see a large plume of smoke rising from all over town, and I heard that some neighbourhoods had to be evacuated! Thanks to our outstanding firefighters and military personnel, they got the fire under control with no known damage and no injuries! The fire burned about 25 acres (0.1 km²) of parkland in the city. Large parks here are mostly wilderness, though there are some developed and paved trails.
It's forecast to get even hotter. A UCLA meteorological article observing our situation said that some parts of the Anchorage metro area could hit 90°F (32°C) over the weekend. The current all-time record is 85°F (29°C.) We are unaccustomed to these kind of temperatures here.
Is it warmer than usual in your part of the world right now?
Since my home is not air conditioned (nor are any other residences in Anchorage for that matter,) I've been slow on the drawings as it's been too hot in my work area, even with several fans blowing. I've got a drawing in the coloring stage right now that I've been working on at the coffee shop (yay for iced tea and air conditioning!) that should be done soon! It's cute, you won't want to miss it, so keep following for more!
Stay cool!
J