Wildfires blister Alaska with increased frequency, intensity

[...] increasingly, large wildfires have marred the pristine outdoors, filling the skies with black smoke and forcing people who live near forests to flee for safety.

A study released Wednesday reinforces a trend revealed by state records, showing that wildfires have been blistering Alaska with greater frequency and intensity.

A common factor associated with the increase — which doesn't bode well for 2015 or beyond — is warm weather, even if experts don't explicitly blame climate change.

Temperatures climbed 20 degrees above normal to the mid-80s last week in Anchorage, currently situated between a pair of active blazes that have charred dozens of homes and buildings.

Another fire in the state's interior has led a dog sled racing champion to evacuate his animals along with some of the people in the remote community of Eureka.

Rupp, a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and principal investigator for the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Climate Science Center, who researches and projects forest ecology, said Alaska's forests and tundra have evolved to burn with high intensity.