Season openers may be delayed

The Delta Championship Series - coordinated by the Kuskokwim 300 board - announced on social media this week that in all likely hood the season opener would have to be rescheduled due to unsafe trail conditions. Alaska is having an unseasonably warm December with much of the state seeing rainfall instead of snow, and most bodies of water (including rivers) are still open. 

On the road system the Knik 100 is set to kick off on December 21. the Forecast betweem now and then shows no sign of cooling down, with several days of sleet and freezing rain predicted. Many teams in South Central Alaska are looking for alternate parts of the state to continue training in better trail conditions.

After several years of decent weather early on in the season, fans and mushers all were hoping to see that weather trend continue - but it appears to be a wet and sloppy holiday season in Alaska, with races having to rethink the season.

If things do not drastically improve January races may face a similar fate.

Funny River Fire - day 6 - evening pictures

As of 9pm tonight the area burned has grown to 106,871 acres with still 20% containment. Good news is rain is on the way, bad news it won't be here until the very earliest Wednesday. The winds have picked up again, but it's a steady wind, not like the unpredictable gusts from last night that prompted the evacuations. They don't expect to be evacuating anyone tonight, but everyone is on high alert. Attention/concern has shifted a bit from Kasilof to Funny River as the winds have changed direction.

The smoke cleared here in Kenai this afternoon. No more week old campfire smell for us. Hopefully it stays away as it was unnerving waking up in the middle of the night smelling thick smoke in the house. Not that our little inconvenience is anything near as stressful as what those in the way of the fires have dealt with.

The water bombers are still taking off and landing here in Kenai. They're using both water and retardants now. They're not expecting a big increase in acres over night like we had last night. But things can change. It really depends on the wind.