Smoke from North American wildfires may block solar radiation in the Arctic

[annm4peace]

http://www.fleshandstone.net/healthandsciencenews/smoke.html

It may be small consolation for those living in smoke-engulfed regions of Oregon and California but the thousands of fires may be giving the Arctic some cooling relief.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. Can't wait for the GOP spin on this one! n/t

[WhiteTara]

2. actually, it is a huge relief

we haven't seen the sun or moon for over a month where I live and it is like nuclear twilight. So it is great news that it is helpful. I can suck up and carry on.

[XemaSab]

3. Same here

Yeah, I think we've had two days where we could see the sun since that thunderstorm. :(

[NV Whino]

4. Cough.

Good. Cough. I guess.

[Blue_In_AK]

5. We've been told that the reason it's cold up here this year

is because of La Nina, cold waters off the coast of Peru. Anchorage is presently on track to have its coldest summer on record. We have had only 35 days above 60 degrees this summer, 7 above 65 and only two above 70, and very, very few sunny days. This has followed the two feet of snow we had on April 26, well before the fires, so the smoke may be contributing to the general weather pattern, but I think it was set beforehand. We're now into the rainy season, so I don't think there's much hope for the rest of the summer. We have new snow on the mountains east of town already.

According to a report in the paper this morning, the cold pattern is supposed to last until October.

• 70-degree days. So far this summer there have been two. Usually there are 15. Last year there were 21. In 2004 there were 49.

• 75-degree days. So far this summer there've been zero. Usually there are four. It may be hard to remember, but last year there were 21. In 2004 there were 23.

http://www.adn.com/life/story/473786.html


The up side of this (there always has to be an up side) is that in 2004, that wonderfully warm year, we lost 6.5 million acres of forest in wildfires. This year so far it's only been 75,000.

[Starry Messenger]

6. cough cough

sneeze...awesome.

[Hekate]

7. Well, that's a silver lining, as it were. I got to itching all over from something in the smoke...

... my doc agreed and gave me a cortisone shot. It's possible it was poison oak carried in the smoke, but there's no way to tell. At least our fire is now considered to be fully contained...

Hekate

[dipsydoodle]

8. Indeed

every silver lining has got a cloud.