Earth from Orbit: Alaska Ablaze @NOAASatellites

Uploaded June 2022 | Updated September 2026, 7 hours ago

June 2022 saw a record number of fires burning across Alaska, which have compromised air quality and stretched firefighting resources thin. Thus far, more than 1.6 million acres have been consumed, a threshold that has not been reached this early in the fire season in decades. Since 1990, there were only 11 times when a million acres of wildland burned in a single year.

This year has been an unusually active fire season in the region, with abnormally warm and dry conditions that led to more than 300 wildfires igniting in recent weeks. Many of these were sparked by nearly 5,000 lightning strikes from thunderstorms that moved across south-central and southwestern Alaska in early June.

As of June 30, 157 active fires were burning across Alaska. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation has issued air quality advisories and episodes for the Central and Eastern Interior, Southcentral, Southwest, and the Aleutians regions of the state.

Learn more:
nesdis.noaa.gov/news/earth-orbit-alaska-ablaze
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Credits:
NOAA
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
CIRA

Music:
“Abandoned Agony,” by William Charles Baker [PRS]; Ninja Tune Production Music; Universal Production Music

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