Published Jul 23, 2024 by Andrea Thompson

Temperatures in Fairbanks, Alaska, are forecast to hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday—hotter than the expected highs in New Orleans, Atlanta and Washington, D.C., that day. In fact, it will be hotter in Fairbanks than much of the contiguous U.S. east of the Mississippi River. The expected temperature in the Alaskan city would tie a record for that date, and the heat could exceed it.

The unusually soaring temperatures in Alaska’s interior are the result of a “very, very strong bubble of warm air, of high pressure that has set up over Alaska,” says Greg Michels, a meteorologist on a temporary detail at the National Weather Service’s (NWS’s) office in Fairbanks. Though such heat events are not unheard of there, this one is unusually strong and persistent for this time of year.

Interior Alaska does periodically see these types of heat waves: the hottest temperature ever on record in Fairbanks was 96 degrees F, set on June 15, 1969. But the event this week is unusually late in the summer.

That may sound odd to those dwelling in the Lower 48, where summer heat tends to peak in July and August. But Alaska’s Arctic location means that by late July, Fairbanks has already lost more than two hours of sunlight since the summer solstice, “so there’s just less time to accumulate solar heat,” says Brian Brettschneider, a climate scientist at the NWS’s Alaska Region Headquarters. In Houston or Atlanta or Saint Louis, the temperature could reach 100 degrees F anytime between late May and late August, he adds, but “that just cannot happen here ... because you need that sun angle, the hours of daylight.”

Since 1930, there have only been 25 years where Fairbanks had at least one 90-degree-F day, and in those years, there have been only a total of 45 such days, Brettschneider says. Only six 90-degree-F days have occurred this late in the summer.

“Hot for us is over 70” degrees F (21 degrees C), says Uma Bhatt, a climate scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Published Jul 23, 2024

With the summer growing season well underway, the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center continues its summer series of classes and instruction on food preservation.

Whether you are new to the topic or a seasoned pro, the Extension Center offers the publication “So Easy to Preserve” as a kitchen must-have. The book covers all aspects of food preservation, including canning, pickling, making jellies and jams, freezing, and drying. The easy-to-use guide includes a list of frequently asked questions and a table of problems, causes, and ways to prevent the problem from happening again.

Food preservation is taking center stage in an ongoing summer series of classes and workshops at the Farm. On Thursday this week, the topic will be canning fruit and tomatoes.

The session will be led by Julie Cascio, a health, home, and family development agent from UAF’s Cooperative Extension Service. Participants will learn about how to choose jars and lids, select and prepare fruits, and use a boiling water canner.

Published Jul 23, 2024 by Sophie Kevany

Just by ending the practice of overfishing, we could store the same amount of carbon as 6.5 million acres of forest each year

Remove the fish and there goes the carbon. “The more fish we take out of the ocean, the less carbon sequestration we are going to have,” says Heidi Pearson, a marine biology professor at University of Alaska Southeast who studies marine animals, particularly whales, and carbon storage. “Plus, the fishing industry itself is emitting carbon.”

Pearson points to a 2010 study led by Andrew Pershing, which found that had the whaling industry not wiped out 2.5 million great whales during the 20th century, the ocean would have been able to store nearly 210,000 tons of carbon each year. If we were able to repopulate these whales, including humpbacks, minke and blue whales, Pershing and his coauthors say that would be “equivalent to 110,000 hectares of forest or an area the size of the Rocky Mountain National Park.”

A 2020 study in the journal Science found a similar phenomenon: 37.5 million tons of carbon were released into the atmosphere by tuna, swordfish and other large sea animals targeted for slaughter and consumption between 1950 and 2014. Sentient’s estimates using EPA data suggest it would take about 160 million acres of forest a year to absorb that amount of carbon.

While it’s impossible to know the exact amount of carbon we could store by ending overfishing and bottom trawling, our very rough estimates suggest that just by ending overfishing for a year, we would allow the ocean to store 5.6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent, or the same as 6.5 million acres of American forest would absorb in that same time period. The calculation is based on the carbon storage potential per fish from the ‘Let more big fish sink’ study’ and the annual global fish catch estimate of 77.4 million tons, of which about 21 percent is overfished.

More reliably, a separate study released earlier this year suggests banning bottom trawling would save an estimated 370 million tons of CO2 each year, an amount equivalent to what it would take 432 million acres of forest each year to absorb.

Published Jul 23, 2024 by Casey Brogan

Saturday’s mountain race in Girdwood — the Cirque Series Alyeska — might be the world’s toughest 10K.

Kendall Kramer, also of Fairbanks, is making her pro debut after being promoted by Cirque Series.

The 22-year-old UAF skier won the Alyeska two years ago, and after placing second at Mount Marathon this month, she has earned the bump to the big leagues.

Published Jul 23, 2024

Alaska may not come to mind when you think of places to grow apples, but local apple production — and the pollinating insects that make it possible — is something John McCormack is studying closely. McCormack, a graduate student in biological sciences, is leading a project with the Alaska Center for Conservation Science (ACCS), funded by a USDA grant, to investigate which insects pollinate apple flowers. 

Working under the direction of Matthew Carlson, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences and director of the ACCS, McCormack and other ACCS graduate students have been collecting samples at 10 different orchards in Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. Working with the Alaska Pioneer Fruit Growers Association, Carlson sent a survey to local apple growers to identify interested orchard owners for the study.

McCormack hypothesizes that Alaska’s wild, native bee species (bumble bees, mason bees and mining bees) may actually contribute more to pollination than the introduced honey bees that some apple growers keep to help pollinate their orchards. His hypothesis is based on earlier research on how different species of bees collect food from flowers. Honey bees, according to McCormack, “often come around the side of the flower and get the nectar at the base of the flower, so they don’t always contact the reproductive parts of the flower.” However, native bee species, like bumble bees, generally visit flowers to collect pollen from the anthers, which means they are “transferring pollen between the anthers and stigmas… and they’re possibly more efficient pollinators than honey bees.”

Published Jul 23, 2024 by Yvonne Krumrey

This week’s word of the week is neech, which means beach or shoreline.