May 2002 continued a pattern of below-normal precipitation for much of coastal southern Alaska and the Alaska panhandle.
As noted by the National Weather Service office in Juneau, dry conditions this spring in Alaska have begun to produce adverse effects:
- several stations in the panhandle had the driest spring on record
- low water levels in area lakes caused power generation shortfalls in some hydroelectric plants
- the wildfire danger increased across the panhandle and some burn bans were issued
According to Chris Maier, Warning Coordination Meteorologist at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Juneau: "An unusually persistent high pressure ridge has been over our region since March. This has kept the main storm track away from southeast Alaska. The result so far has been a record breaking dry spell for most of the Panhandle. Another impact of this blocking weather pattern is that our temperatures at night have been colder than normal due to the lack of clouds. If our precipitation stays below normal into June, we will actually be talking about drought conditions in southeast Alaska."
As noted by media reports, hot, dry, windy weather near the end of May fanned numerous forest fires across parts of the state. By early June, the year-to-date (January 1-June 4) acreage burned exceeded 400,000 acres, which is 26 times the average and three and a half times the total acres for the same time of year for the previous 7 years combined (BLM - Alaska Fire Service). The drought code used by the Alaska Fire Service had moderately dry conditions extending from the southern coast into east central Alaska, with a high risk of wildfires in early June extending across the interior portions of the state.
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