Alaska Feels Record High Temps, NASA Takes Rare Overhead Photo of the State Cloudfree

A high pressure system over Alaska enabled NASA to capture a rare satellite image of the state almost completely devoid of cloud cover, but the odd and unusually hot weather has some climate scientists concerned.

Most days, the state is awash in clouds, which obscure much of Alaska's  6,640 miles (10,690 km) of coastline and 586,000 square miles (1,518,000 square km) of land.

The image above was taken on June 17 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA's Terra satellite and offers an unusually clear view of the states rivers, mountains and forests, even its wildfires.  

The high-pressure system that cleared Alaska's skies was also responsible for the high temperatures around the state, breaking records in some towns.

In McGrath, June 17 saw a record-high temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit - a huge increase from only a few weeks earlier when the same location was 15 F, a record cold temperature for so late in the year. Talkeetna, about 100 miles north of the Anchorage, hit a high of 96 F.

According to Rutgers University climate scientist Jennidfer Francis, the heat wave can be blamed on fluctuations in the jet stream. The jet stream usually flows more or less in a straight stream from east to west. But lately the jet steam has been bobbing and weaving up and down, which is associated with the extremes in weather.

"I've been doing meteorology for 30 years and the jet stream the last three years has done stuff I've never seen," Jeff Masters, meteorology director at Weather Underground, told the Associated Press. "The fact that the jet stream is unusual could be an indicator of something. I'm not saying we know what it is."

Environmental news site Mongabay reports that Alaska is being impacted by climate change faster than the rest of the world. The state saw the lowest sea ice extent on record last year, which the site reported may be affecting weather patterns across the northern hemisphere, including the unusual jet stream patterns.

Rutgers' Francis also noted the low sea ice as a cause for concern.

"It's been just a crazy fall and winter and spring all along, following a very abnormal sea ice condition in the Arctic," Francis said. "It's possible what we're seeing in this unusual weather is all connected."