Does the wildland fire smoke increase or decrease the surface temps? During persistent Fbks smoke events it seemed the smoke blocked some of the solar heating.
Correct: wildfire smoke blocks some incoming solar heating but is largely transparent to outgoing longwave radiation. Without the smoke it would have been even hotter in Sahtu region.
Both 2013 and 2019 had at or near all-time record heat in Southcentral and western Alaska;
June 2013: Talkeetna 96F (all-time), McGrath 94F (all-time) Nome 86 (tied all-time), Kotzebue 85F (tied all-time), Cordova 90F (all-time)
June-July 2019: Northway 92F (all-time), Anchorage Airport 90F (all-time), King Salmon 89F (all-time), Bethel estimated 89F (ASOS was OTS), modern era record. August 2019 Kodiak 86F tied airport record.
I think we can attribute the lack of recent extreme heat in the central Interior to random variability and that sooner rather than later it will be our turn.
Does the wildland fire smoke increase or decrease the surface temps? During persistent Fbks smoke events it seemed the smoke blocked some of the solar heating.
Correct: wildfire smoke blocks some incoming solar heating but is largely transparent to outgoing longwave radiation. Without the smoke it would have been even hotter in Sahtu region.
Both 2013 and 2019 had at or near all-time record heat in Southcentral and western Alaska;
June 2013: Talkeetna 96F (all-time), McGrath 94F (all-time) Nome 86 (tied all-time), Kotzebue 85F (tied all-time), Cordova 90F (all-time)
June-July 2019: Northway 92F (all-time), Anchorage Airport 90F (all-time), King Salmon 89F (all-time), Bethel estimated 89F (ASOS was OTS), modern era record. August 2019 Kodiak 86F tied airport record.
I think we can attribute the lack of recent extreme heat in the central Interior to random variability and that sooner rather than later it will be our turn.