More "hottest year ever" updates from Alaska

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Alaska s wildfire season limps to a close

[Aug. 5, 2012] Barring an unexpected departure from the Interior’s cool, damp summer, this fire season will go down as the second-smallest of the past dozen years. Only about 200,000 acres have burned in Alaska this summer, with no new wildfires reported in almost a month.
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Thoman said a relatively small number of lightning strikes also kept fires from sparking. The number of strikes detected in the Interior and Northern Alaska was the smallest since 2003, he said.

It’s a stark contrast to the past decade, when Alaska had by far its heaviest stretch for wildfires. The average during the 2000s was nearly 2 million acres per year, including a record 6.6 million acres burned in 2004.

Since 1939, when fire records in the state were first kept, the average summer has included about 1 million acres of wildfire-burned land.

Cool Weather Having An Impact on Juneau Eagles | Alaska Dispatch

[July 21, 2012] According to the Juneau Empire, the local bald eagle population appears to be booming this summer.

Clusters of eagles on pilings or wrestling for dead salmon at low tide have been noted. Stephen Lewis, a wildlife biologist who works in the Juneau Raptor Management Office for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, agrees. But he added that he also believes that many of this year’s nests failed during the cold, wet spring and summer.