Wildfires on the Seward Peninsula

By Rick Thoman
Alaska Climate Specialist
Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy
International Arctic Research Center/University of Alaska Fairbanks

Wildfires on the Seward Peninsula are episodic. In some years there are none at all, and in most years there are a few fires but — by Alaska standards —don’t burn large areas.
But there are occasional big wildfire years. Since the early 1950s, fire has burned more than 2.8 million acres on the Seward Peninsula. As evident on the graphic, four years, 1954, 1957, 1971 and 1977 account for more than two-thirds of that total, and over the years there have been about two dozen fires that exceeded 15,000 acres (25 square miles).
The largest wildfire in the past 75 years was the 1954 Imuruk Basin fire, which was started by a lightning strike on June 4 and wound up burning more than 415,000 acres (nearly 650 square miles) by the end of the summer. The 1977 Kugruk fire south of Deering was also sparked by lightning during the hot and dry weather of July, and burned more than 400 square miles, and last summer's Goldbug fire largely burned on land that also burned in the Kugruk fire. The Kugruk fire was also one of first tundra fires to be extensively studied to help understand how tundra responds and recovers from wildfire.
Of course, western Alaska sometimes sees smoke from distant fires. When the winds aloft blow from the east, smoke from Interior wildfires can move across the region. When winds aloft are from the west, smoke from Siberian fires is sometimes seen. Usually smoke from distant fires is aloft and imparts an orange tinge to the sun and clouds, but typically it doesn't smell smokey.
However, as we saw in July 2022 with smoke from the Koktuli River fire near Iliamna Lake, dense smoke can move hundreds of miles from the source when the weather conditions keep the smoke confined to the lowest few thousand feet of the atmosphere.