Smoky Anchorage has the worst air quality in the U.S.

Anchorage's smoky summer won't relent. As of Tuesday morning, the most populated city in Alaska had the worst air quality in the nation, according to the World Air Quality Index. 

A number of late-season wildfires have perpetuated Anchorage's hazy summer, which has been the city's smokiest summer on record. On Tuesday morning, smoke levels ranked as "unhealthy," with an air quality index of 175. 

Warming Alaska — the fastest-changing state in the U.S. — has been primed for wildfire this summer, after the Last Frontier experienced record-breaking heat waves and its hottest July ever recorded (reliable temperature data in Alaska goes back nearly a century, to 1925). The area burned this summer, while not record-breaking, still amounts to one of Alaska's largest documented fire years, having scorched some 2.44 million acres, an area about twice the size of Delaware.  Read more...

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