Wild land fire season is definitely here. Currently there are over 300 active fires in Alaska. Many of these are not endangering structures and are being monitored. Even so, the fires that are threatening structures and people are putting a strain on the system. Earlier this week some people from Nulato had to be evacuated by boat as the villages runway was completely obscured by smoke. Fire crews have been able to prevent major damage to the town but they are far from safe at this point. Upriver the village of Tanana is threatened by two different fires on their side of the river and one on the other side of the river. I had planned to make a trip upriver next weekend but might have to postpone it. I would normally get fuel in Tanana but I’m not sure they will be able to provide fuel right now. Also, there is the issue of low visibility on the river due to smoke. We will just have to wait and see for now. In our area most of the fires are due to lightning. We will occasionally have a thunderstorm move through the area, so far they don’t drop much rain but start a lot of fires due to lightning. The weather forecast for the next several days is for the weather to remain the same. We have two fires north of town but currently they are moving away from Galena, a shift in the wind could change all that. We are keeping an eye on things and I will post when we know more. Here is a link to a map that shows all the fires in Alaska . I have also included a link to Alaska wildland fire information in the links section.