Climate Watch: Alaska Going Through Climate Milestone With First Heat Advisory in State History

      

The old button from the Environmental Club days which I just happened to find on Earth Day! It is a little beat up (particularly the ends of the ribbon), but no worse for the wear, I think. And it is one of the few items that I have left from those days, so it carries a lot of great memories for me! Nothing Changes Until You Do!

When you think of Alaska, you probably think of cold weather, right?

After all, many Americans were highly critical of then U.S. Secretary of State William H. Seward making the move allowing the United States to purchase Alaska, back in the 19th century. It was so widely ridiculed that it came to be known as "Seward's Folly" or "Seward's Icebox." Most people seemed to think of Alaska as a frozen, barren wasteland. And that's understandable, because Alaska is indeed frigid, with large parts of it located north of the Arctic Circle, and bordering the Arctic Ocean on it's northern edge.

Yet right now, Alaska just received the first heat advisory in the history of the state. A land known for cold conditions is experiencing absurdly hot conditions that "could feel like 110" degrees Fahrenheit.

To say this is unusual would be an understatement.

So I saw this and decided that maybe it's time to try to document these kinds of things here. To that end, I will call this "Climate Watch" and simply report on unusual weather conditions, with perhaps more of a focus on excessive heat, since it has been my experience that many climate change deniers fixate on heat.

Again, this feels unusual enough to be alarming, especially when you couple it with record hot conditions being experienced simultaneously in other parts of the West (a bit more on that in another blog entry soon to be published) as well as the stifling record heat wave recently experienced in India and Pakistan. 

Below are the links to the articles on the record heat that Alaska currently is experiencing:

Alaska gets its first-ever heat advisories from National Weather Service By: Yereth Rosen - June 13, 2025 6:

https://alaskabeacon.com/briefs/alaska-gets-its-first-ever-heat-advisories-from-national-weather-service/

Alaska just hit a climate milestone — its first-ever heat advisory The heat bearing down on central Alaska "could feel like 110" in a state where the sun can shine all day. Forecasted temperatures for June 16 in Alaska. Forecasted temperatures for June 16 in Alaska. NOAA Lois Parshley Published Jun 16, 2025

https://grist.org/extreme-heat/alaska-just-hit-a-climate-milestone-its-first-heat-advisory/?fbclid=IwY2xjawK9nStleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHh3JHZOEMc5eIwxhfHyKV7YiXAhIGlk9chRzXH0hkwDcEroR-_aPCPINZcnY_aem_IXcwAaO9VLRivXI8LY5tMQ