Alaska Hits Shocking Heat Record as Dangerous Phenomenon Accelerates: ‘Those Temps Could Feel Like 110’

In a tragic milestone for rising global temperatures, the National Weather Service has issued a heat advisory for Alaska, the first such alert in the state’s history, Grist reported.

Facing 22 hours of summer daylight and temperatures forecast to reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas, Ciara Santiago, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks, Alaska, issued the historic advisory.

“People in [the] Lower 48 might think that’s nothing, but here those temps could feel like 110,” Santiago said, per Grist.

With June temperatures normally in the low 70s, the heat posed a challenge for residents more accustomed to dealing with brutal winters than hot summers. Most homes were designed to trap rather than release heat, and few buildings have air conditioning, Grist reported.

Due to a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification, areas near the Earth’s poles are warming at a much faster rate than the rest of the planet. With one-third of the state within the Arctic Circle, Alaska has experienced these effects firsthand, warming twice as fast as the lower 48 states, according to Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. (Read more from “Alaska Hits Shocking Heat Record as Dangerous Phenomenon Accelerates: ‘Those Temps Could Feel Like 110’” HERE)

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