Although there were more fires burning across the state before the "July rains" (the weather in the arctic is the same--and VERY predictable :P --all the way around the globe), the "forest fire season" for 2003 was, well, lame. :P :)
We only really saw one fire. Here is a picture of it from the parking lot in front of the International Arctic Research Center. (Of note, at this point, we didn't know that this was a forest fire---nor did we know how far away it was, 'n stuff (over 15 miles (!)). -We only knew that there was a major blaze going on--towards the eastern edge of Fairbanks.
And here is another picture of the blaze from the hill in front of the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center:
At this point, we were really into taking pictures of the fire! Fire!! FIRE!!!! (Um. Heh-heh. -Sorry about that. :) )--so we drove to a good vantage point on (University of Alaska Fairbanks) campus, to get a good shot:
I'm sorry these aren't very exiting pictures. (Sometimes Alaska forest fire pics are absolutely EXTRAORDINARY---picture a HUGE, mushroom-shaped plume--extending all the way up to the top of the troposphere, for example. -But like I said, the forest fire season 2003 was pretty much . . . lame. :)
