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A season ending event |
source DNM Fairbanks |
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author: unknown |
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Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Editorial
After a blistering month that followed blistering months, the atmosphere feinted at creating some real August weather last week when the Fairbanks area received a nice wetting one evening.
The incident didn’t really have the right look or feel for August, though. Areas outside Fairbanks received almost no rain, confirming the feeble nature of the showing.
That all changed this week. It began Monday night, and by Tuesday morning there was no denying the shift. Low, dark, ragged clouds, many dumping heavy rain, rolled across the Interior, soaking everything in their path.
That’s what we’ve been talking about. For a month.
This sort of weather usually arrives sometime in early August, in time to put out forest fires, rescue parched gardens and refill the rivers, creeks and aquifers. When the rains don’t arrive, it doesn’t feel right. The fires and smoke keep us on edge, we get sick of pouring water on the gardens and we worry about the wells going dry.
So when the rain began pelting the ground Monday night as forecasted, it was a welcome sound. By midnight, 0.14 inches had fallen at the official gauge at the airport. More came Tuesday, another 0.45 inches by 4 p.m.
The National Weather Service’s forecast has showers and rain sprinkled throughout the next week.
Firefighters call such weather a “season-ending” event, referring to the fire season.
We prefer to think of it as a “season-beginning” event, meaning that essential annual season during which Interior Alaska’s normally desert-like environment moistens for a few moments.
It’s here, and it’s rarely been more welcome.
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