It has been very warm the last few weeks here in Alaska, due to an anomalously strong high pressure ridging episode, which has since weakened, but is in the process of re-building. So warm in fact, that here at the Chugach Front Research Centre, we had to dig out a fan that we had not used ever before since moving to Anchorage in 2010, to bring a little relief from the heat. Many high temperature records were broken over much of the state, during this episode. It reminded your lead editor of many hot, stifling summer days in Missoula, MT, when I lived there in 1990-98. The hot, still late afternoon and evening times with temperatures in the 80s, and no breeze, heating up our home to uncomfortable levels. This article, from the Climate Central website, below, gives a good summary of what has been happening. The following statement from the NWS Anchorage office also describes the record-breaking temperatures.
NOAK48 PAFC 180614 AAA
PNSAFC
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ANCHORAGE AK
1010 PM AKDT MON JUN 17 2013
...ALL TIME RECORD HIGHS FALL AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL ALASKA...
A EXPANSIVE RIDGE OF HIGH PRESSURE OVER SOUTHERN ALASKA IS CONTINUING
THE STRING OF UNUSUALLY HOT DAYS. TEMPERATURES AT MANY LOCATIONS WERE IN THE 80S TO MID 90S.
THE FOLLOWING STATIONS SET ALL-TIME HIGH TEMPERATURE RECORDS TODAY:
TALKEETNA....96 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 91 SET ON JUNE 16
2013...JUNE 14 1969...AND JUNE 26 1953.
CORDOVA......90 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 89 SET ON JULY 16 1995.
VALDEZ.......90 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 87 SET ON JUNE 26 1953
AND JUNE 25 1953.
SEWARD.......88 DEGREES. PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 87 SET ON JULY 4 1999.
THE VALDEZ TEMPERATURE WAS RECORDED IN THE CITY OF VALDEZ. THE HIGH
TEMPERATURE AT THE AIRPORT WAS 84 DEGREES.
TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN ABOVE NORMAL ON TUESDAY BUT WILL BE COOLER
THAN TODAY. THE COOLING TREND WILL CONTINUE ON WEDNESDAY.
MORE CLIMATE INFORMATION FOR SELECT SITES IN SOUTHCENTRAL ALASKA MAY
BE FOUND AT PAFC.ARH.NOAA.GOV/CLIMATE.PHP
Let's look at one of the graphics again, from the Climate Central article, the 500 millibar analysis, from 6/18/13. As a reminder, the contours on this map are the height at which the atmospheric pressure equals 500 millibars, which is a function of temperature. The higher these heights (plotted in dekameters, so 546 is 5460 metres), the warmer, overall, the atmosphere is. And the flow is parallel to these contours, which at these elevations, depicts the overall "jet-stream" flow with it's high pressure ridges, and low pressure troughs. Also depicted on this map are "standardised anomalies" of these 500 millibar heights, which are a statistical method of depicting the rarity, or strength, of an event, related to departures from mean values.
What this is showing, is that the high pressure ridge, the mass of warm air aloft, that was over Alaska on 18 June, had standardised anomalies of 3-4, which is highly unusual. Meaning these values were essentially four standard deviations above the mean values of the 500 millibar heights for this date. Which would mean that this is a very rare event. It seems we are seeing more events of this nature globally. Which brought our extreme fire season here in Alaska in 2004, the heat waves/fires in Australia in 2009 and earlier this year, and the ones in Russia in 2010.
http://akprogressive.blogspot.com/2011/04/alaska-fire-seasons.html
Further, in our last post,
we presented research findings from a meteoric crater lake in Siberia, that was never scoured away by the ice ages of the past few million years. Which showed that 3 million years ago (mya), the climate there, in what has been the coldest area of the northern hemisphere in winter, was incredibly warmer, much like what would be found today in western Montana. At that time, global atmospheric CO2 concentrations were the same as they are today, 400 ppm, and sea levels were 25 metres higher. In addition, other research is now suggesting that the loss of the Arctic Ocean summer sea ice is acting to slow down the northern hemisphere jet stream, making events like our strong high pressure ridging episodes, and extended winter snowy periods, or wet, stormy fall periods, more likely. And as these patterns shift, the changes can be drastic in nature.
Our wildland fire season in Alaska is off to a robust start, currently around 160,000 hectares (400,000 acres). The 1955-2013 seasonal average is around 365,000 hectares, so we are almost halfway there, and the season is just beginning.
Above, is a fire history map of Alaska obtained from the BLM/Alaska Fire Service's website.
These are decadal contours of wildfire perimeters, and what we wish to point out, is the orange-coloured ones. These are from the 2001-2010 decadal breakdown. The 1990s are a greyish colour, and the 1980s, a light blue, both of which don't show up very well in this image. Look how much more area has burned in the 2001-2010 period. The two largest single years in the 1940-present period of record were in 2004 and 2005, during which 2.7 million hectares (6.72 million acres) and 1.8 million hectares (4.6 million acres) burned. There are currently dozens of active wildfires burning in the Alaska interior, and enough lightning has been occurring over the last several days, and will continue to occur for several more, to start even more fires. Hence, we think that with another high pressure ridging episode beginning to develop now, it will be an easy bet that a minimum of 800,000 hectares (2 million acres, over twice the 1940-1955 average) will burn in the Alaska interior, if not more, in 2013. Meaning the people living in Fairbanks, and the other settlements will have to deal with smoky, unhealthy conditions at times, and possibly, even danger from encroaching fires, if large, threatening ones are able to move closer to populated areas.
This has been, over the past few decades, and will continue to be, an increasingly frequent occurrence in the Alaska interior, as the climate system "catches up" to our ever-increasing CO2 levels due to fossil-fuel combustion. As it stands now, when it does, at 400 ppm, the climate of the Alaska interior would likely be that of central/eastern Oregon/Washington, but we are heading toward a minimum of 550 ppm, under current emissions scenarios, by 2060. The main unknown, is just how long this "catching up" will take. 50 years, 100, 200, more? For certain, this also means the boreal forests will die off and transition to a grass/sagebrush/aspen type at the lower elevation, with wildfires being an integral part of this process. We'll be sure to keep you informed of future developments this summer.
CORPORATISM UNMASKED
The fallout from the Edward Snowden leaks of the USA's National Security Agency's practices of surveillance of all communications globally (not in just the US) continues. The Alaska Progressive Review was not particularly surprised when this story broke a few weeks ago. Nonetheless, this is a gripping story, with huge potential to bring about significant changes to political systems (hopefully of a beneficial nature) in this and other countries. Here are several of our favourite articles we have seen recently, which are well worth reading.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jun/22/snowden-espionage-charges
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/earth-insight/2013/jun/14/climate-change-energy-shocks-nsa-prism
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/23-1
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/24-9
We especially liked the founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange's statement, released recently about Edward Snowden.
Statement by Julian Assange after One Year in Ecuadorian Embassy
Saturday June 22nd, 15:00 GMT
It has now been a year since I entered this embassy and sought refuge from persecution.As a result of that decision, I have been able to work in relative safety from a US espionage investigation.
But today, Edward Snowden’s ordeal is just beginning.
Two dangerous runaway processes have taken root in the last decade, with fatal consequences for democracy. [And which are completely unconstitutional in the USA, so much for our politicians "solemnly swearing to uphold, defend, and protect the Constitution of the United States of America, against all enemies, foreign and domestic" as they all must do when entering federal employment as an elected official, eds..]
Government secrecy has been expanding on a terrific scale.
Simultaneously, human privacy has been secretly eradicated.
A few weeks ago, Edward Snowden blew the whistle on an ongoing program - involving the Obama administration, the intelligence community and the internet services giants - to spy on everyone in the world.
As if by clockwork, he has been charged with espionage by the Obama administration.
The US government is spying on each and every one of us, but it is Edward Snowden who is charged with espionage for tipping us off.
It is getting to the point where the mark of international distinction and service to humanity is no longer the Nobel Peace Prize, but an espionage indictment from the US Department of Justice.
Edward Snowden is the eighth leaker to be charged with espionage under this president.
Bradley Manning’s show trial enters its fourth week on Monday.
After a litany of wrongs done to him, the US government is trying to convict him of "aiding the enemy."
The word "traitor" has been thrown around a lot in recent days.
But who is really the traitor here?
Who was it who promised a generation "hope" and "change," only to betray those promises with dismal misery and stagnation?
Who took an oath to defend the US constitution, only to feed the invisible beast of secret law devouring it alive from the inside out?
Who is it that promised to preside over The Most Transparent Administration in history, only to crush whistleblower after whistleblower with the bootheel of espionage charges?
Who combined in his executive the powers of judge, jury and executioner, and claimed the jurisdiction of the entire earth on which to exercise those powers?
Who arrogates the power to spy on the entire earth - every single one of us - and when he is caught red handed, explains to us that "we’re going to have to make a choice."
Who is that person?
Let’s be very careful about who we call "traitor".
Edward Snowden is one of us.
Bradley Manning is one of us.
They are young, technically minded people from the generation that Barack Obama betrayed.
They are the generation that grew up on the internet, and were shaped by it.
The US government is always going to need intelligence analysts and systems administrators, and they are going to have to hire them from this generation and the ones that follow it.
One day, their generation will run the NSA, the CIA and the FBI.
This isn’t a phenomenon that is going away.
This is inevitable.
And by trying to crush these young whistleblowers with espionage charges, the US government is taking on a generation, and that is a battle it is going to lose.
This isn’t how to fix things.
The only way to fix things is this:
Change the policies.
Stop spying on the world.
Eradicate secret law.
Cease indefinite detention without trial.
Stop assassinating people.
Stop invading other countries and sending young Americans off to kill and be killed.
Stop the occupations, and discontinue the secret wars.
Stop eating the young: Edward Snowden, Barrett Brown, Jeremy Hammond, Aaron Swartz, Gottfrid Svartholm, Jacob Appelbaum, and Bradley Manning.
The charging of Edward Snowden is intended to intimidate any country that might be considering standing up for his rights.
That tactic must not be allowed to work.
The effort to find asylum for Edward Snowden must be intensified.
What brave country will stand up for him, and recognize his service to humanity?
Tell your governments to step forward.
Step forward and stand with Snowden.
The current US government is completely and unabashedly under corporate control, and the younger generation now, of people under 30, crushed with student debts from soaring higher education costs, or else just looking for work, are waking up and starting to realise this. And knowing that there will never be enough meaningful, well-paying jobs enabling them to get a decent start to their lives, under the current system. And that the corporate-controlled government which is based on sociopathic greed, is destroying their futures as it continues to accelerate environmental destruction. Remember, "Truth is the Enemy of Empires" [A.P.R. 2013]. That's where things stand, we hope meaningful changes can occur peacefully, because they must. Cheers.
