Alaska’s slow start to wildfire season a relief after Connecticut-sized area burned last year

Alaska is off to the slowest start of a wildfire season in three decades — an immense relief one year after fires scorched nearly enough land to cover Connecticut and even threatened remote Alaska Native communities on the tundra.

Thanks to a cool, wet summer, wildfires so far this year have burned just 1½ times the size of New York’s Central Park. …

Anchorage has only gone above 70 degrees F (21.1 degrees C) once this year.

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