Asian Particulates

The late evening sun is on fire above the northwestern horizon.

The skies over northern Alaska have been unusually hazy the past few days. It has looked more like the smoggy LA basin as the haze has obscured the mountains. Our more typical bright blue atmosphere was replaced with a "dirty" airmass as a gigantic high pressure center built in over the state this week. The fine particulates which are clogging up our skies are apparently originating from fires burning in Russia and dust storms raging across Mongolia. The only benefit of the haze that I can see are the intense red sunrises/sunsets.

There is an article about the haze in the Daily News Miner.