A duck swims in the rain on Anchorage’s Westchester Lagoon on July 16, 2024. (Leigh Walden/Alaska Public Media)
It’s been rainy in Alaska for much of July so far, with Southcentral set to see cloudy skies through the week.
That comes on the heels of a drier than usual June, which sparked concerns as wildfires burned across the Interior.
As part of our Ask a Climatologist segment, National Weather Service climate researcher Brian Brettschneider says the rain is lessening those wildfire concerns, and though temperatures may seem comparably cooler, it’s still a warmer-than-average summer.
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Listen:
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Brian Brettschneider: Obviously, rain is a great antidote for wildfire concerns. And it’s been, at least in Southcentral, it was fairly dry for the month of June, and actually most of the state it was dry for the month of June. And we were getting more concerned about the conditions that might be susceptible to starting fires. But this rain has certainly, quite literally put a damper on that.
Wesley Early: And speaking of wildfires, there were a bunch that were burning in the Interior. You mentioned that a big chunk of the state has seen rain. Is the Interior part of that big chunk?
BB: Yes. So if you look statewide, the first half of July, we basically had an entire July’s worth of rainfall, so far, on average statewide. You know, places like Nome, it’s five times as much rain so far that they should have had for the first half of July. And pretty much every single station is well above normal, with just a couple of exceptions. And so the fires that were burning, I don’t think there’s any fire that was burning that hasn’t gotten significant rain. I’m not sure if they’re all out or not, but the rain has definitely been a blessing for fire. And also, you know, July is basically the month of the year where we get the most lightning strikes by a wide margin. It’s July, and then it’s kind of June to a lesser degree, August to an even lesser degree. And with all this, these wetting rains, and they’ve been a kind of steady rains, not convective, not thunderstorms, not nearly as much. And that’s also good for fires. And now we’re really only a few weeks away from the end of the busy time of the lightning season. So there’s not going to be too many more opportunities for new fires to start, hopefully.
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WE: We’re coming to the end of what’s considered, sort of, the peak of wildfire season, peak of lightning season. What is the rest of the summer looking like?
BB: Well, the Climate Prediction Center, they do monthly outlooks, and the next outlook, which is going to be released on Thursday, will show that the southwest part of the state is most likely to be a little bit below normal temperatures. And then the north and northeastern part of the state may be a little bit warmer than normal and about half the state in the near-normal category. A very familiar climate outlook pattern that we’ve seen a number of times over the last few months, and the August one looks to continue that trend also with above normal chances of being wetter than normal. And keep in mind, July and August are the two wettest months of the year in the mainland, so not Southeast, but in the mainland, those are the two wettest months of the year. And so even near-normal rainfall during those months is a good thing. It’s a good amount of rain and we potentially could be on the high end of that.
WE: And this seems to be the second year in a row where the Lower 48 has had baking temperatures. I’ve seen so many places that don’t normally have above 100 degrees having above 100 degrees. Alaska is having a… I don’t want to say lackluster, but a less severe summer. It seems like an odd trend that as the Lower 48 bakes, Alaska has a comparatively cooler summer. Is that normal?
BB: Not really. There’s a little bit more correlation in the winter where there can often be kind of a flip between what Alaska experiences and what the Lower 48 does. It doesn’t really work out so much in the summer. So June statewide it was a top 10 warmest June. It was also a top 10 driest June. And so we need to be careful now that we’re in a kind of a cool wet pattern to think, “Oh, this has been a cool, wet summer.” It really hasn’t been. In fact, for the first half of the summer, statewide, we’re kind of exactly normal. The southwest part of the state is cooler than normal, the eastern part of the state is warmer than normal. But on balance, we’re right at the 1991 to 2020 normal, which is warmer than previous decades. So historically, this is still probably a warmest third of all summers. And, you know, as far as rainfall again, it was a very dry June. We’re definitely making up for that so far in July and the forecast looks for that to continue.
The first Jesuit missionaries in Alaska sailed up the Yukon River in 1887. By the turn of the 20th century, the religious order of the Catholic Church had as many as 50 Jesuits in the state.
Now, only two remain. And by the end of June, there will be none.
The Jesuits’ nearly 140 years in the state was honored at an event at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church on June 16. A procession of priests wearing long white gowns with red hems walked down the aisle to open the event. The Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Stephen Maekawa, thumped the ground with a shimmering silver staff known as a clozier as he approached the altar.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, walks toward the altar at the Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
“My brothers and sisters, we gather together to celebrate this wonderful and blessed occasion to acknowledge the love of God and the work of God through the 139 year mission of the Society of Jesus of the Jesuit fathers,” Maekawa said to open the event.
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A traditional Catholic mass followed, with readings in both English and Yup’ik. During the sermon, Maekawa acknowledged the vastness of the Fairbanks diocese, and the tremendous amount of work done by the Jesuits to establish it.
“All of the 46 churches of the Diocese of Fairbanks that we currently have were established by either the Jesuit fathers or by direction of a Jesuit bishop,” Maekawa said. “We have a long history of the Society of Jesus’ presence and ministry here in all of Alaska.”
The Jesuits are an order within the Catholic Church, akin to the Dominicans or Franciscans. They have a reputation for taking on some of the Catholic Church’s most remote assignments.
That missionary spirit brought the Jesuits to the Yukon River in 1887, where they built churches, schools, and ministries. Without their work, Catholicism may not have taken root in huge swaths of Alaska, particularly among Alaska Native communities.
The Immaculate Conception Church in Bethel.
But the Jesuits leave a complicated legacy. Their methods of converting Native people to the religion, particularly in the first half of the 20th century, created generational traumas still felt to this day.
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Fr. Sean Carroll is the provincial of the Jesuits West Province, which oversees Alaska and nine other states.
Fr. Sean Carroll, provincial of the Jesuits West Province, speaks at an event recognizing nearly 140 years of Jesuit service in Alaska.
“Thank you for all that you have taught us about who Jesus is and how to love and serve Him wholeheartedly,” Carroll said. “I also thank you for your patience with us. For there have been times when we have sinned and when we have hurt you.”
Missionaries, including the Jesuits, forcefully converted and assimilated Alaska Native people into Western culture and religion. Students at Jesuit-run boarding schools were forced to abandon their Native languages and physically punished when caught speaking languages other than English. Native dancing and drumming were also banned.
The Jesuits West Province maintains a list of 150 Jesuits with credible claims of sexual abuse against minors or vulnerable adults. A quarter of the accused Jesuits served in Alaska at some point in time.
“I ask for your forgiveness for all that we have done that was not rooted in Christ and love for Him, and for when we did not value your culture nor recognize the presence of God in you,” Carroll said.
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Carroll gave the order to withdraw from the state last spring. A big issue was the recruitment of Jesuits willing to travel and serve in remote villages. He told the congregation that the Jesuits’ work would continue, just without a permanent presence.
Fr. Rich Magner, one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska, attends a ceremony in Bethel.
Fr. Rich Magner is one of the two remaining Jesuit priests in Alaska. His last day serving Chevak, Hooper Bay, and Scammon Bay is June 30.
“We all always knew coming in, or should have known, that we’re not going to be here forever. It’s going to be mission accomplished at some point,” Magner said. “And then we hand it off to the diocese that we’ve helped create, and so that’s a good feeling.”
Magner’s next stop is a Clinical Pastoral Education residency in Tacoma, Washington.
The other remaining priest, Fr. Tom Provinsal, first came to Alaska in 1968 to teach. A fond memory, he said, was meeting Elders that practiced traditional subsistence lifestyles.
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“Some of the grandmothers, their fingers were just all bent with arthritis and stuff like that, you know, their whole lives they’ve been working out in the cold and the wet, doing food, sewing, all that kind of stuff,” Provinsal said. “I’d say I just feel very privileged to have come when I did come and to see that.”
Provinsal returned in 1975 as a priest and has served in the region ever since. After moving away, he plans to take a five month sabbatical. What happens next, he said, is in God’s hands.
Two lines formed in the aisle for communion at the end of the mass. After taking communion, Bethel’s Parish Administrator Susan Murphy gave a final thank you.
“It’s difficult to say goodbye to people who have been a part of our lives for so long,” Murphy said. “We know that you have done what was yours to do, and have taught us to do what is ours to do. We are grateful.”
Jesuit priests form a row along the altar of Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church as members of the congregation lift their arms and pray.
Dominic Hunt, a Yup’ik deacon that flew in from Emmonak for the event, led the congregation through a final prayer.
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“Bless them with your wisdom, that they may be a word of hope, a world in need. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen,” Hunt said.
About 70 people posed for a photo on the altar – priests, deacons, parishioners, Elders and children — many of them smiling, some standing quietly.
The photo doesn’t tell the whole story. But it’s a moment when gratitude, grief, and memory all shared the same room.
Bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks, Steven Maekawa, stands in the middle of a crowd waiting to take a photo at Bethel’s Immaculate Conception Church.
JUNEAU, Alaska (KTUU) – The Supreme Court of Alaska will be taking up the case of the State of Alaska, Division of Elections v. Daniel J. Sullivan, Jr.
The oral arguments will be held Monday at 10 a.m. via Zoom, according to an order and opening notice.
The document also specifies that a decision is expected to be made before noon on Tuesday.
According to documents from the Division of Elections, the state must start printing ballots at noon on the same day.
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This comes after an Anchorage Superior Court Judge ordered Dan J. Sullivan on to the ballot Friday.
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