More on Alaska heatwave

More on the heatwave in Alaska. People think it's great!

Facebook comments from Gulo Gulo who lives in Alaska

I have lived in NW coastal Alaska all my life and only a few times did it get to this temp and never by mid-June, usually it is more like 40 or 50 F or even freezing still.

Now Fairbanks, the interior Arctic is just like Siberia - used to get up to 90 F in late July or Aug (we had such huge cabbages!) but never in mid June...and as for SE Alaska it is supposed to be a wet chilly climate rainforest, the highs were always just 65 F or so. sorry for all the Fahrenheit terms, you can use a calculator, ha.

This is terrible news for the millions of migratory birds that go to AK from across the globe for breeding, and of course for the spawning salmon whose eggs might just cook.

Climate chaos: after record winter cold, Alaska bakes in record heat-wave

Taking advantage of an intense heat wave that broke long-standing records yesterday, residents of Anchorage, Alaska, headed to the beach at Goose Lake.

Yahoo,

18 June, 2013

As the Anchorage Daily News reports, the National Weather Service recorded a high temperature of 81 degrees in the city, beating the previous record of 80 degrees set in June of 1926.

The AP reports that in other spots, it got in even hotter:

"All-time highs were recorded elsewhere, including 96 degrees on Monday 80 miles to the north in the small community of Talkeetna, purported to be the inspiration for the town in the TV series, Northern Exposure and the last stop for climbers heading to Mount McKinley, North America's tallest mountain.

One unofficial reading taken at a lodge near Talkeetna even measured 98 degrees, which would tie the highest undisputed temperature recorded in Alaska.

"That record was set in 1969, according to Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the online forecasting service Weather Underground.

" 'This is the hottest heat wave in Alaska since '69,' he said. 'You're way, way from normal.' "

NBC News reports that the unusual heat follows an unrelenting winter that hung on until the end of May, when the state gets 18 hours of sunlight a day.

"Eventually, the sun is going to win out, and once it did, boy, did things change in a hurry," Michael Lawson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Anchorage office, told NBC News.

The AP put together a video that shows Alaskans have traded in parkas for shorts and are running to the nearest body of water for some relief: