A historic heatwave has brought out of control fires to Siberia, Russia. The fires, which have increased five fold in size over the last week, now cover more than 2.85 million acres (1.15 million hectares) in the normal freezing-cold arctic of Northe Torn-Russia.
The fires are now believed to be so out of control, and many of them in such remote regions, that fire crews are in no way able to keep them under control or even gain access to them. Satellite images of Siberia show just how far the fires have spread and the unbelievable area they are now covering.
🟠Take a look at the #Siberian #wildfires🔥 in the #Arctic yourself with our #EOBrowser. Here using a custom script by @Pierre_Markuse overlaying hot spots and highlighting the burn scar. Try it out here and play around ➡️ https://t.co/9MSR96mGOh #RemoteSensing #OpenData 1/3 pic.twitter.com/XDs5nbxDKC
— Sentinel Hub (@sentinel_hub) June 26, 2020
The region is undergoing the hottest temperatures ever recorded. The town of Verkhoyansk in the Sakha Republic was recorded at 38 degrees centigrade (100.4 Fahrenheit) last week, the hottest temperature ever recorded within the Arctic circle. At this time of year, the town usually records temperatures of around 6 degrees Celsius.
Wildfires some 20km away from the @PleistocenePark on river Kolyma in the extreme north of Yakutia. They were caused by days of extremely hot and dry weather; a lot of forces are currently deployed to make sure the fire doesn’t get close to a major power line #wildfires2020 pic.twitter.com/EyeLZiPQI9
— The Siberian Times (@siberian_times) June 26, 2020
Environmentalists have pointed the finger at rising global temperatures as a result of man-made climate change. Indeed, this is hardly the first climate related disaster to have struck the world this year. In January, Australia was heavily impacted by out of control bush-fires that raged for weeks.
Jonathan Overpeck, a climate scientist at the University of Michigan, told abc NEWS:
"The Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire. It’s warming much faster than we thought it would in response to rising levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and this warming is leading to a rapid meltdown and increase in wildfires. It is another sign that the Arctic amplifies global warming even more than we thought."
A record heatwave in Siberia has led to forest fires in the Republic of Sakha.
— Shakthi #StayHomeSaveLives (@v_shakthi) June 25, 2020
Temperatures spiked to 30C (86F) on Wednesday pic.twitter.com/5E50h96uyP
What scientists have begun to fear most is the melting of permafrost in the region. As the name suggests, permafrost is frost the does not melt throughout the year and is permanent. Melting of the permafrost will greatly impact people living in the region as well as global temperatures.
The molten permafrost can damage buildings and infrastructure, such as power lines and oil pipelines. Unfortunately, such incidents have already occurred. Last month a mining facility affected by permafrost melting leaked 21,000 tons of diesel fuel into an Arctic river, causing huge localised environmental damage and pollution.
The #Siberian heat wave has had multiple consequences. Widespread forest fires and reports of buildings being damaged as the permafrost that they are built on thaws at a rapid rate. pic.twitter.com/nosV2Dxgb8
— Randall Gates (@rgatess) June 28, 2020
Perhaps more worrying is the fact that permafrost works as a store of carbon dioxide, which is due to ancient decomposed natural materials being locked inside the ice for hundreds-of-thousands of years. As carbon-dioxide is one of the leading causes of global warming, should the permafrost melt enough to unleash its CO2 bounty, the whole process of global warming would become super accelerated.
This means that the melting of the Arctic is not just a worry for Russia but should be of concern to the whole world.
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