Summer Solstice in Alaska
GOES-15 0.63 µm visible channel images (click image to play animation)
GOES-15 (GOES-West) 0.63 µm visible channel images (above; click image to play animation) showed the cloud features over much of Alaska on 21 June 2013 (the day of the summer solstice). Record heat had been occurring across much of Alaska during the previous week, and Barrow (BRW) had a daily record high temperature of 62 F on 20 June. Note that there were numerous thunderstorms that developed over the Brooks Range and even over the North Slope regions of Alaska — on 20 June, over 4000 cloud-to-ground lightning strikes were detected. The haziness seen early in the animation was due to widespread smoke from wildfires that had been burning in southwestern Alaska a few days earlier.