WILDFIRES
Siberian Forest Fires Increase Fivefold in Week
Since Record High Temperature
Common Dreams Jun. 28, 2020 01:22PM EST
By Eoin
Higgins
The number
of fires in the vast north Asian region of Siberia increased fivefold this
week, according to the Russian forest fire aerial protection service, as
temperatures in the Arctic continued higher than normal in the latest sign of
the ongoing climate crisis.
The news of
the increase comes a week after the small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk reported
a high temperature of 100.4° F on June 20, a reading that, if confirmed, would
mark the hottest day ever recorded in the region.
"While
fires are common at this time of year, record temperatures and strong winds are
making the situation particularly worrying," the European Union's Earth Observation
Programme, which is monitoring the situation, said in a statement.
As the
Associated Press reported:
According
to figures reported Saturday by Avialesookhrana, Russia's agency for aerial
forest fire management, 1.15 million hectares (2.85 million acres) were burning
in Siberia in areas that cannot be reached by firefighters.
The
worst-hit area is the Sakha Republic, where Verkhoyansk is located, with
929,000 hectares (2.295 million acres) burning.
The Sakha
Republic's fire service reported 127 natural fires in the Russian federal
sector.
The fires
and heat are due to the climate crisis, Weather Channel meteorologist Carl
Parker told Newsweek.
"What
climate change is doing is moving the distribution of weather events, such that
historically low-frequency, extreme events occur more frequently," said
Parker. "Had the climate not changed due to man-made greenhouse gases, the
heat we've seen in parts of Siberia would have been a 100,000-year event."
Parker
warned that the fires are part of a dangerous feedback loop in the northern
region.
"What's
scary about the warming in Siberia is that there are huge quantities of carbon
in permafrost, which can be unleashed during periods like this, particularly as
fires develop in the region," said Parker.
Jonathan
Overpeck, University of Michigan environmental school dean, told AP in an email
on June 24 that the situation in the Arctic region is unprecedented.
"The
Arctic is figuratively and literally on fire," wrote Overpeck. "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."
"The
record warming in Siberia is a warning sign of major proportions," he
added.
Temperatures
in Siberia for the first five months of 2020 were an average 14° F over normal.
"That's
much, much warmer than it's ever been over that region in that period of
time," Zeke Hausfather, a Berkeley Earth climate scientist, told AP.
Meltwater near
the Arctic city of Norilsk. Last month, an oil spill occurred at Norilsk due to
the thawing of permafrost causing pipes to collapse. The city, which processes
nickel and other minerals, is the largest air polluter in Russia, emitting
twice as much as London. Kirill Kukhmar/TASS Photo
Heatwave in Siberia, with 38 degrees, raises concerns
about changing climate
Siberia experiences tropical temperatures: last weekend
the mercury would have risen to 38 degrees Celsius. A record for this part of the
world, and according to climatologists an indication that global warming is
becoming increasingly worrisome.
Ben van Raaij 24 June 2020, 17:19
The record
temperature of 38 degrees Celsius was reportedly measured on 21 June in
Verchojansk in the Autonomous Republic
of Sakha
(Yakutsia). The World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) in Geneva
announced on Tuesday that it will check the media reports with the Russian
Federal Meteorological Service. The WMO calls the messages worrisome, but in
line with well-known trends.
The part of
Siberia that lies above the Arctic Circle has been experiencing a heat wave for
weeks. The spring there was very warm, with temperatures up to 8 degrees above
normal, causing the snow cover on the bottom and the ice on the rivers to melt
prematurely. Also last winter was warmer than normal.
Siberia has an
extreme land climate that has traditionally been featured in the Guinness Book
of World Records. The temperature can range from minus 68 degrees Celsius in
winter to values above 30 degrees Celsius in summer. But 38 degrees is
exceptional, according to the WMO. According to local media, the temperature on
the ground would have peaked at 45 degrees.
The current heat
record (if confirmed) is a new indication of global warming, which is twice as
fast in Arctic areas as elsewhere. This is worrying, because the warming can
cause the permanently frozen subsurface (permafrost) to thaw. This can release
methane on a large scale, a greenhouse gas 38 times as powerful as CO2. It can
greatly accelerate existing warming.
Subsidence
The thawing of
the permafrost also leads to subsidence of houses, roads and oil pipelines. An
oil spill last month near the Arctic city of Norilsk, in which 20,000 tons of
oil spilled into rivers, was partly due to thawing permafrost. In 2011, an
apartment complex in Yakutsk, the largest city of Sakha
(Yakutia), collapsed due to the unstable subsoil.
An additional
problem of warming is the forest fires, which are also becoming more common and
increasing in siberia. Last year, more than four million hectares of forest
were lost, according to Greenpeace Russia. The first wildfires broke out in the
spring this year. Normally, the forest fire season in Siberia does not begin
until the course of July.
Arctic records its hottest temperature ever
BY JEFF
BERARDELLI
UPDATED ON:
JUNE 23, 2020 / 8:47 PM / CBS NEWS
Alarming
heat scorched Siberia on Saturday as the small town of Verkhoyansk (67.5°N
latitude) reached 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 degrees above the normal high
temperature. If verified, this is likely the hottest temperature ever recorded
in Siberia and also the hottest temperature ever recorded north of the Arctic
Circle, which begins at 66.5°N.
The town is
3,000 miles east of Moscow and further north than even Fairbanks, Alaska. On
Friday, the city of Caribou, Maine, tied an all-time record at 96 degrees
Fahrenheit and was once again well into the 90s on Saturday. To put this into
perspective, the city of Miami, Florida, has only reached 100 degrees one time
since the city began keeping temperature records in 1896.
Verkhoyansk
is typically one of the coldest spots on Earth. This past November, the area
reached nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, one of the first spots to drop
that low in the winter of 2019-2020. The scene below is certainly more
characteristic of eastern Siberia.
Reaching
100 degrees in or near the Arctic is almost unheard of. Although the reading is
questionable, back in 1915 the town of Fort Yukon, Alaska, not quite as far
north as Verkhoyansk, is reported to have reached near 100 degrees. And in 2010
a town a few miles south of the Arctic circle in Russia reached 100.
As a result
of the hot-dry conditions right now, numerous fires rage nearby, and smoke is
visible for thousands of miles on satellite images.
This heat
is not an isolated occurrence. Parts of Siberia have been sizzling for weeks
and running remarkably above normal since January. May featured astonishing
warmth in western Siberia, where some locales were 18 degrees Fahrenheit above
normal, not just for a day, but for the month. As a whole, western Siberia
averaged 10 degrees above normal for May, obliterating anything previously
experienced.
On May 23,
the Siberian town of Khatanga, far north of the Arctic Circle, hit 78 degrees
Fahrenheit. This was 46 degrees above normal and shattered the previous record
by a virtually unheard-of 22 degrees. On June 9, Nizhnyaya Pesha, an area 900
miles northeast of Moscow, near the Arctic Ocean's Barents Sea, hit a
sweltering 86 degrees Fahrenheit, a staggering 30 degrees above normal.
What's
perhaps even more impressive is that this relative warmth has persisted since
December, with average temperatures in western Siberia 10 degrees Fahrenheit
above normal — doubling the previous departure from average in 2016.
The average
heat across Russia from January to May is so remarkable that it matches what's
projected to be normal by the year 2100 if current trends in heat-trapping
carbon emissions continue. In the image below, the data point for 2020 is
almost off the charts, and matches what climate models expect to be typical
many decades from now.
The extreme
events of recent years are due to a combination of natural weather patterns and
human-caused climate change. The weather pattern giving rise to this heat wave
is an incredibly stubborn ridge of high pressure; a dome of heat which extends
vertically upward through the atmosphere. The sweltering heat is forecast to remain
in place for at least the next week, catapulting temperatures easily into the
90s in eastern Siberia.
But this
heat wave can not be viewed as an isolated weather pattern. Last summer, the
town of Markusvinsa, a village in northern Sweden on the southern edge of the
Arctic Circle, hit 94.6°F. Warming and drying of the landscape is leading to
unprecedented Arctic fires, with the summer of 2019 being the worst fire season
on record.
Due to heat
trapping greenhouse gases that result from the burning of fossil fuels and
feedback loops, the Arctic is warming at more than two times the average rate
of the globe. This phenomenon is known as Arctic Amplification, which is
leading to the decline of sea ice, and in some cases snow cover, due to rapidly
warming temperatures.
Over the
past four decades, sea ice volume has decreased by 50%. The lack of white ice,
and corresponding increase in dark ocean and land areas, means less light is
reflected and more is absorbed, creating a feedback loop and heating the area
disproportionately.
As the
average climate continues to heat up, extremes like the current heat wave will
become more frequent and intensify. Scientists say there is only one way to
dampen the impact of climate change and that is to stop burning fossil fuels.
Correction:
This story has been updated to correct the name of the town that reported a
near-100-degree day in 1915 to Fort Yukon, not Prospect Creek.
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