Why do Alaskans get excited when we make national news?

It's especially amusing because it's usually for some kind of disaster.

This is no different - MSNBC is telling ya'll about the fires.

The one on the left is by a large lake in Sterling, Alaska called Skilak Lake.

The one inaccurate line in the story is that there has been no smoke in Anchorage...HA!

As of 2:00 pm, our Air Quality Index was at 235 - considered to be "Very Unhealthful." The smoke is hanging in the air and the visibility is only about a mile. Everyone here at work is coughing, sneezing, complaining - especially since we are all very hot because we can't open the windows due to the smoke. The reason for most of the wildfires has been, like last year, hot, dry weather combined with multiple lightning strikes.

Twenty years ago, it rarely got above 65 in the summer time in Southcentral Alaska. Twenty years ago, we rarely if ever had a thunderstorm. It was so rare that it would scare the animals and even some of the life long residents!

For the last 3 years, we have been steadily getting more and more of them. As a matter of fact, check out this funnel cloud seen on the Kenai Peninsula when we were there for the 4th of July.

It's unheard of to have this kind of weather up here!!! I thought I left all this back in the Midwest!

21 years up here has made me a believer in global warming.