Baked Alaska. Alaska posts its first heat advisory.
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Alaska just issued its first-ever heat advisory. Here’s why.
For the first time, the state known for glaciers, dogsledding and northern lights issued a heat advisory, with temperatures in Fairbanks pushing 86 degrees.
June 16, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTToday at 6:00 a.m. EDT
5 min
Summary7
A welcome sign in Fairbanks, Alaska. Alaska is warming faster than any other U.S. state. (iStock)
By Ruby Mellen
Jason Laney knows heat.
The National Weather Service meteorologist spent 14 years crafting weather-related warnings in El Paso, where summer temperatures regularly rocket above 100 degrees. But Laney took a leap of faith less than a year ago, moving with his wife and two dogs from America’s southern border to Alaska, where he helped change the way officials communicate about weather — and made history doing so.
For the first time ever, the state known for glaciers, dogsledding and northern lights issued a heat advisory, as temperatures in Fairbanks, its second largest city, were slated to top 86 degrees over the weekend. It’s not the first time temperatures have climbed that high, but it’s the first time the state has ever put out such a warning about heat.
“The whole purpose of this is to draw awareness to the dangers of heat,” said Laney on Friday, speaking from an air-conditioned gym lobby wearing shorts and a T-shirt. “There’s not any acclimation here.”
As the world continues to get hotter due to human-caused climate change, Alaska is warming faster than any other U.S. state and above the last century’s global average. The state is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the dangers of high temperatures — what researchers say is the deadliest form of extreme weather. Homes rarely have air conditioning or ceiling fans; their thick walls are built to trap in warmth for the long, subzero Alaskan winters.
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“We have homelike greenhouses we’re living in,” Laney said. And when a heat wave comes to Alaska in June, there can be little reprieve. In Fairbanks this time of year, the sun sets around 1 a.m. and rises again about two hours later.
Advisories are one of three communication alerts the NWS issues on heat, along with extreme heat watches and extreme heat warnings. They tell residents to drink water, stay in cool places and consider postponing outdoor activities. All U.S. states except Hawaii issue them, Laney said, but the thresholds for triggering them are different.
In El Paso, Laney and his colleagues would put out heat advisories if temperatures topped 105 degrees. But there, people are adapted to heat, he said. In Alaska, summer comes on quick, and sometimes the human body isn’t ready after months of cold.
“It kind of sneaks up on you,” said Ben Bartos, who works for the NWS in Anchorage. Studies have shown it can take the human body up to a few weeks to acclimate to heat. He added heat could bring on other hazards in Alaska. Glacially-fed rivers can rise, leading to flood watches. Warm temperatures sometimes coincide with and exacerbate Alaska’s busy fire season.
“You could have more fire, which means more smoke in the air,” Bartos said. “People would open their windows, but you can’t do that because it’s smoky out.”
The trick in crafting the heat advisory plan, Laney said, was finding a sweet spot temperature threshold, where the message would keep residents safe but only be issued about three times in a year. Coordinating with climatologists who know Alaskan weather, they landed on 75, 80 and 85 degrees, depending on the part of the state.
But the meteorologist said the Fairbanks office is already thinking of bumping the temperature up for next year, as 85 degrees is becoming a more common occurrence in the area.
Extreme temperatures have been linked to cardiovascular illness, chronic kidney disease mortality and respiratory failure. Heat can put undue stress on organs. When you’re hot, your heart pumps faster to get blood flow to the skin; kidneys work harder to preserve water. It’s often called “the silent killer,” because communicating its hazards can be challenging. Compared to wildfires, tornadoes and floods, heat is hard to see and fear.
“Even in places where people might think they’re immune from extreme heat — they’re not anymore,” said Jennifer Marlon, a research scientist at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. “Heat advisories can play a critical role. They’re simple but vital tools and will save lives.”
In El Paso, Laney spent years studying and informing the public about heat resilience, issuing advisories and warnings and talking about incorporating humidity into the calculation of risk. He said a colleague heard one of his talks and suggested he come to Alaska, where heat was then communicated as a special weather statement, unlikely to trigger a phone alert or garner much public attention.
In August, in the middle of an El Paso heat wave, Laney made the move to Fairbanks, eventually buying a house — without air conditioning.
In April, the state’s NWS office announced it would begin issuing advisories for the first time.
“This is just a starting point for us up here,” Laney said in May. “But I don’t anticipate summers getting any cooler.”
Laney had just flown back from the remote city of Nome to Fairbanks last week when he saw the weather forecast. He wore warm layers from his trip to the Bering Sea, where it was around 45 degrees and rainy. He felt it on the tarmac: Fairbanks was getting warm.
“I got to thinking,” he said, “we’ve got Father’s Day coming up, we’re loaded with tourists a week away from the solstice. I said, you know what, we better give folks a heads-up.”
The advisory went out on Thursday evening and was updated Friday, saying temperatures were expected between 85 and 89 degrees from 1 p.m. Sunday to 7 p.m. Monday.
“Individuals not accustomed to these unusually hot temperatures for this region may experience heat related illnesses,” the advisory said.
“I’m proud of being a part of the team that made it,” Laney said, adding that most of the feedback has been positive.
Still on a sunny Friday in Fairbanks, the Texas transplant had to admit: “It’s warm. But I kind of like it.”