It is in the summer months North Pole Burns are not uncommon. Last year, among other things, Siberia Huge fires broke out, and millions of hectares of forest were affected. But even if the danger appears to have been avoided after the end of the warm season, this is often the case only superficially.
Researchers in the Netherlands and the United States Alaska Now I present a study that identifies another danger to natural areas: the so-called zombie fires. Smoke – invisible above the ground – rises into the ground during the winter months and spreads again in the summer.
“During the fire season, fires happen due to lightning or human negligence. Now we have investigated another reason. If a fire breaks out near an ancient site, early in the season and without lightning or people – this is a winter’s over, said Sundar Ververbeek of Vrije University in Amsterdam, co-author of the study. Diem, the “guardian”. This assessed data from Alaska and the northern parts of Canada.
Ververbeek added that most people would burn trees in front of them if wildfires were believed. But in the far north, peat soil has played an important role in fires.
According to the study, Published in the magazine “Nature”.Between 2002 and 2018, the “zombie fires” were only responsible for a total of 0.8 percent of the burned area in the areas analyzed. The problem, according to researchers: The summer was warmerThe greater the impact of fire underground. For example, the study cites Alaska, where about 38 percent of the burned area in 2008 was due to a fire in hibernation.
High temperatures in the Arctic Circle
Siberia has recently experienced relatively mild winters and spring droughts He preferred the spread of fire. He burned there for several months. Siberia also recorded record temperatures in 2020. Summer temperatures in Siberia were measured at 34 degrees, and temperatures close to twelve degrees usually prevail at this time.
Even in the Arctic Circle, unprecedented temperatures have been set: in Chattanga, where daytime temperatures around zero are normal at this time of year, 25 degrees were exceptional on May 25. The previous record was twelve degrees.
Climate experts have long predicted that temperatures around the Arctic Circle will rise faster due to climate change than other regions and that extreme weather conditions will increase as they have in the previous year.
