In Alaska and probably in Siberia flash “zombie-fires”, signalling that the coming season is a serious Arctic fires. This writes the newspaper The Washington Post (translation Inopressa). As explained by the media, the extremely cold Arctic winter usually suppresses the seasonal forest fires that break out in the region. However, it happens that a forest fire “refuses” to come to naught. Those flashes, known as “zombie fire” may go into rich organic material beneath the surface, such as the extensive peat bogs that surround the Arctic, and smolder under snow cover during the cold of winter, the article says. The publication notes that the last time in Arctic Siberia are observed record warm weather conditions. Scientists, observing the trends of forest fires in the Arctic, there is little doubt that some of the outbreaks occurring in the Arctic this spring, in fact — the remains of the fires from last summer. For example, in 2019, there was a record number of fires increased in the region, which is warming more than two times faster than the rest of the world. Soil, peat, and permafrost in the Arctic contain vast reserves of carbon and other warming the planet with greenhouse gases that can be emitted in the combustion, the newspaper notes. As told senior researcher and expert on forest fires in the European Copernicus Service for atmosphere monitoring mark Parrington, Arctic last inflammation were found in areas where there were fires last summer, and which coincide with the regions affected by warmer than average and unusually dry physical conditions. According to him, the regions North of the Arctic circle most affected by the fires in 2019, had a more warm and dry physical conditions, created the perfect environment for igniting and maintaining fires. Data from satellite sensors to detect hot spots indicativet that “zombie fire” could be resumed, but until it was confirmed by ground measurements, the expert said, adding that such anomalies are quite common in areas that burned last summer. “If so, then under certain environmental conditions we may encounter a cumulative effect of last year’s fire season in the Arctic, which will affect the upcoming season and could again lead to widespread and long-lasting fires in the same region,” explained Harrington. Fire researcher at the University of Alberta Mike Flannigan for its part said that this year fires break out early, and some of them are fires burning all winter. According to him, in April experts for firefighters discovered a smoldering “fire zombie” near willow in Alaska, and officials prepared for the discovery of other similar “zombie fire”. The newspaper notes that in North-Central Siberia have recently observed record-breaking heat wave, which came after a record warm winter. Temperature deviations from the average in Siberia this year are among the highest of all areas in the world, the publication. According to Robert Kind of organization Berkeley Earth, which keeps track of global temperature trends is not only a new record anomaly for Russia. This is the biggest anomaly from January to April ever observed in relation to the average in any country. Experts say that this heat has a dramatic effect on the landscape. Heat causes the melting of the snow cover and accelerates the drying of soils, including peatlands, which, when wet conditions would be more resistant to fire. Historically, the Arctic peat bogs served as a fire barrier, says Mike Waddington, Ecohydrology from McMaster University in Canada. Now they, rather, distributors of fire andbecause of rising temperatures, which promote fast drying of the soil, he explained. According to Flannigan, the relationship between temperature and forest fires is quite simple: “the warmer it gets, the more fires we see.”
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