Warming's recipe for Baked Alaska: trillions of tons of glaciers gone, millions acres burned

FILE - In this Sunday, June 7, 2015 file photo provided by the Alaska Division of Forestry, smoke rises from the Bogus Creek Fire, one of two fires burning in the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge in southwest Alaska. Global warming is carving measurable changes into Alaska, and President Barack Obama is about to see it. President Obama leaves Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 for a three-day visit to the 49th state in which he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and become the first president to visit the Alaska Arctic. There and even in the sub-Arctic part of the state, he will see the damage caused by warming, damage that has been evident to scientists for years. (Matt Snyder/Alaska Division of Forestry via AP, File ) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this June 17, 2015 file photo provided by the Alaska Army National Guard, a “Bambi Bucket,” hanging from a helicopter releases hundreds of gallons of water onto the Stetson Creek Fire near Cooper Landing, Alaska. Global warming is carving measurable changes into Alaska, and President Barack Obama is about to see it. President Obama leaves Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 for a three-day visit to the 49th state in which he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and become the first president to visit the Alaska Arctic. There and even in the sub-Arctic part of the state, he will see the damage caused by warming, damage that has been evident to scientists for years (Sgt. Balinda O’Neal/U.S. Army National Guard via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

FILE - In this June 16, 2015 file photo, two Nikiski Fire Department firefighters walk on a road near a fire-ravaged forest left behind by the Card Street fire in Sterling, Alaska. Global warming is carving measurable changes into Alaska, and President Barack Obama is about to see it. President Obama leaves Monday, Aug. 31, 2015 for a three-day visit to the 49th state in which he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and become the first president to visit the Alaska Arctic. There and even in the sub-Arctic part of the state, he will see the damage caused by warming, damage that has been evident to scientists for years. (Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion via AP, File) (The Associated Press)

Global warming is carving measurable changes into Alaska, and President Barack Obama is about to see it.

Obama leaves Monday for a three-day visit to the 49th state in which he will speak at a State Department climate change conference and become the first president to visit the Alaska Arctic. There, and in the sub-Arctic part of the state, he will see the damage caused by warming .

Studies show that more than 3.5 trillion tons of water have melted off of Alaska's glaciers since 1959, when Alaska first became a state.

In the first 10 years of statehood, Alaska averaged barely a quarter million acres of wildfires yearly. The last 10 years have averaged 1.2 million acres.