Eventually the water finds its way back to the sea, and the cycle of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and flow is repeated. In many parts of Alaska, such as the Interior, this cycle can take many years. Rain in the Interior may run off to creeks and rivers quickly, or slowly filter through muskegs and black spruce forests. Water may also be held for decades in the form of permafrost only to be released when wildfire opens the ground to the heating of the summer sun. In contrast, in Southeast Alaska the water cycle can take just a few days to complete.
Coastal rivers are steep and soils are shallow.
Rains pulse through the panhandle and flush water into the sea quickly. The shortness of the water cycle along much of coastal Alaska actually helps define the climate as a temperate rainforest. This type of coastal forest is dependent upon high annual rainfall for continued health. Without the influence of the rain, the dynamic system of life from the mountains to the sea could not exist. Where Alaska's Fish Live Fish habitat is the place where a fish lives.