- Reaction score
- 691
- Location
- theGreatSwamp
As of early spring, wildfires have been surging through the in Siberia. The region hardest hit was the Republic of Sakha in northeastern Russia. Also known as Yakutia, the area of land on July 5. By mid-July, residents of Yakutsk, the capitol of Sakha, were breathing in smoke from over 300 separate wildfires, as reported by the .
Currently, almost 10 million acres are currently burning, with one fire alone scorching an area as wide as 2.5 million acres, reports Ann M. Simmons for the . The fires are burning so intensely that vast swaths of smoke blocked sunlight. For the first time in recorded history, smoke from the fires in Siberia have drifted thousands of miles away to reach the North Pole, reports Oliver Carroll for the .
The Siberian wildfires are more substantial than this season's blazes in Greece, Turkey, the United States, and Canada combined. Local residents from Yakutia have been under a state of emergency for weeks as smoke continued to smother cities, even those that are thousands of miles away, reports the
Climate Change and Increasing Temperatures
In recent years, summer temperatures in Russia have seen record highs in the triple digits—despite being one of the coldest places on Earth. Many experts suspect it's a result of human-driven climate change. The increasing hot weather melted permafrost and, as a result, fueled the numerous fires, report Daria Litvinova and Vladimir Isachenkov for the . Per the Moscow Times, a warming climate combined with a 150-year drought and high winds created the best conditions to turn the taiga forest into fire fuel.
Temperatures over the year range between -44 to 77 degrees Fahrenheit in . This past summer, after arid and extremely hot weather patterns, the Sakha-Yakutia region reached 102 degrees Fahrenheit, setting records for several consecutive days, per the Associated Press.
Last edited:
