The period 2006 - 2015 saw what was considered to be relatively low activity for Arctic wildfires. Despite its reputation for the cold, the Arctic does routinely suffer from wildfires, typically between May and October, with peak activity usually experienced in July / August.
The difference this year seems to be that the fire locations, the intensity and the length of time the fires are burning, are particularly unusual - at least according the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Mark Parrington of CAMS says that they are at "unprecedented levels."
It seems that a very dry June is the key factor here; the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) say that globally, 2019 was the hottest June in the instrumented era. Dry storms and hot weather have seemingly caused the fire season to hit its peak earlier. Parrington says, "Extremely dry ground and hotter than average temperatures, combined with heat, lightning and strong winds, have caused the fires the spread aggressively."
Arctic average temperatures are rising at twice the global average rate. Parrington told CNN at the end of July that, "Temperatures in the Arctic have been increasing at a much faster rate than the global average, and warmer conditions encourage fires to grow and persist once they have been ignited."
Water-heavy peat, that is common throughout much of the area, can help prevent the spread of fires, but when it dries out, as is the case in parts of the Arctic at the moment, it becomes highly flammable.
Eastern Russia / Siberia:
The Russian Federal Forestry Agency says that 2.7m hectares (6.7m acres) of remote forest, across six Siberian and east Russian regions, including Buryatia and Sakha, are burning. Greenpeace puts the figure at nearer 3.3m hectares.
There is some controversy, with many Russians saying that the government has not been doing enough to combat the fires (citing the high exposure of the Notre Dame fire earlier this year), but officials respond by pointing out that the fires are in hard to reach places, and don't have direct impact on civilian populations.
However, there have been human impacts; smog from the fires are affecting several regions, leading to a state of emergency being declared in some. In the major city of Novosibirsk, smoke drifts across the urban areas, and there has been a rise in health complaints, particularly from people experiencing breathing difficulties.
It has been reported that June temperatures in parts of Siberia have been up to 10°C higher than the 1981-2010 averages! President Putin eventually has responded, sending in the army to help fight the fires, along with ten planes and ten helicopters fitted with firefighting equipment.
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| The image on the left shows thermal anomalies, that may include other features like volcanoes; the right hand image shows the smog impact across the region (Nasa, Aqua/Modis, GEOS-FP) |
Alaska:
By 31 July, 105 large fires, and maybe as many as 400 fires in total, had been reported across the state. These are affecting around 0.7m hectares (1.78m acres) of land (although the Guardian quoted 2.06m acres), with most reported to have been started by lightning strikes (according to the Alaska Interagency Coordination Center).
But Dan Thompson of Natural Resources Canada, points out that this year is only the fifth busiest year for fires in Alaska in the last two decades. There was a record reached last month though; on 4th July, temperatures in the state reached up to 32.2°C in places - a new July record for Alaska.
Greenland:
The recent heatwave has seen sea ice melting at a faster rate here, You can see evidence of abundant melt ponds (in photo below), which are another effect of temperatures increasing.
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| Qeqqata fire shows towards bottom left - Greenland ice sheet, to the right, shows lots of blue dots, which are the melt ponds (image: Copernicus Sentinel 3 satellite) |
Canada:
Meanwhile, in Canada, Thompson, who is a Forest Fire Research Scientist with Natural Resources Canada, says that it has been an "average" summer for fires there. One fire has been ravaging the Northwest Territories though - estimated to be about 45,500 acres in size, but the actual size may actually be much bigger.
Impacts:
Wildfires provide a range of devastating potential impacts on the globe and on humans;
- Release of toxic gases
- Thick smoke produced - reduces visibility and damages human health
- Soot produced
- Can get into animal lungs and bloodstreams
- Contributes to global warming effects
- Absorbs sunlight and warms the atmosphere
- When it falls on snow and ice, it reduces reflectivity and traps heat, which speeds up melting
- CO2 released
- 50 megatons were released in June
- This equates to Sweden's entire annual average
- This is more than all the CO2 emitted by all June wildfires between 2010 - 2018 combined
- 79 megatons released in July
Much of the greenhouse gas (GHG) being emitted by wildfires is actually from previously stored CO2 and methane in the ground / plants, which is released as it burns. Thomas Smith, an environmental geographer with the London School of Economics, says, "The fires are burning through long-term carbon stores.... emitting GHGs, which will further exacerbate greenhouse warming, leading to more fires."
Atmospheric Scientist, Santiago Gasso, has estimated that the Siberian fires have created a smoke lid that is covering around 4.5m km2 (1.7m miles2) of central and northern Asia.
Next years wildfire patterns will go a long way to showing us whether this is the beginning of a pattern of worsening, and perhaps more prolonged, fires, or whether it will return to the lower ebb of a decade or so ago.
One thing seems to be for sure - if the fires are bad, this can create a devastating feedback loop; increased concentrations of GHGs get released into the atmosphere - more warming occurs - creating hotter and drier conditions - which is ideal for fires and more carbon to be released into the atmosphere.......
Research:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-wildfires-1.5228945
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/arctic-wildfires-1.5228945
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/arctic-burning-greenland-melting-thanks-record-heat
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-49125391
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