In Siberia An Area Larger Than Portugal Has Burned Since The Beginning Of This Year
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From mid-June, regions in Russia's northern Siberia, including beyond the Arctic circle, have registered unprecedented heat records. Russia's weather service expert Roman Vilfand said that anti-cyclones—which create abnormally clear skies with no clouds or rain—had increased in the northern hemisphere. In the Arctic, where the sun doesn't set in the summer, this means that sunlight is heating the Earth's surface around the clock, increasing the risk of fires, he said.
On Thursday, the Russian weather service said wildfires this year have already covered an area that is 9.6 percent larger than last year over the same period. Fresh satellite images showed Saturday that the largest fires are still in Russia's vast Yakutia region, which is sparsely populated and borders the Arctic Ocean.
Emergencies services in the region, where temperatures have been consistently above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), were fighting off the flames near an oil storage facility most of this week. On Friday they declared there was no danger to populated areas. The region announced a state of emergency on July 2 due to the wildfires, which the governor of Yakutia said were caused by "dry thunderstorms".
Greenpeace Russia's forest programme, which analyses satellite data, said Saturday that a total of 9.26 million hectares—greater than the size of Portugal—have been impacted by wildfires since the beginning of 2020.
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https://phys.org/news/2020-07-wildfires-siberia-weather.html