![]() According to NASA, this is ten times the average area burned by mid-May. You May Also Like: States Betting on Giant Batteries to Cut Carbon We Couldn’t Monitor Larsen C Without These Satellites Climate Change Altering Droughts, Impacts Across U.S.Today’s Image of the Day from NASA Earth Observatory features smoke from wildfires over southern Canada, North Dakota, and other states on May 15, 2023.īy May 16, fires in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan had burned 478,000 hectares. When they burn, they put that carbon in the atmosphere, increasing the impacts of climate change and creating a vicious cycle that will likely lead to more fires. Boreal forests store about 30 percent of the world’s carbon. That will reshape some of the most unique ecosystems on earth and the climate system itself. ![]() Similar changes have been observed in Canada as well.Ĭlimate change is expected to continue driving conditions that make destructive fires more common in boreal forests. That same report found that Alaskan wildfire season is 40 percent longer as well. Large fires in Alaska are twice as common as they were 75 years ago, according to Climate Central’s own research. These individual events are part of a new reality that the boreal forest is burning at a rate unprecedented in modern history. This is the third year in a row massive fires have lit up Siberia. The year prior, Alaska had an explosive early start to its wildfire season. Last year, a massive blaze overran Fort McMurray, Alberta and became the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history. The extra heat has caused a string of severe wildfire seasons not just in Siberia, but in other stretches of the boreal forest that also covers Canada and Alaska. Temperatures in Siberia were up 7.2☏ above normal from November 2016-April 2017. Climate change has been driving up temperatures around the world, but the northern tier of the planet has seen temperatures rise twice as fast. Since November, temperatures have been up to 7☏ above average with some months far exceeding that mark. The region where fires are burning has been a hot spot on the global temperature map. There’s evidence pyrocumulus clouds formed, a phenomenon that occurs when wildfires burn so hot that they cause localized convection that eventually forms clouds. The Suomi NPP measurements in particular show that the aerosol index - a measure of air quality - hit 19, a mark that denotes very dense smoke.Īccording to NASA Earth Observatory, scientists are also investigating signs that the fires were burning so intensely, they altered the local weather. ![]() Both show the stunning breadth of impacts wildfires can have. The Aqua satellite captured the extent of the thick plumes of smoke and fires dotting the region while the Suomi NPP satellite was able to analyze the air quality. NASA’s satellites captured the scene on Friday from a few different vantage points. RELATED Arctic’s Boreal Forests Burning At ‘Unprecedented’ Rate Alaska Entering New Era for Wildfires Alberta Wildfires Costliest Disaster in Canadian History Strong winds have sent smoke spiraling hundreds of miles northeast, impacting air quality across the region. The current constellation of conflagrations had burned through roughly 133,000 acres to the west of Lake Baikal in southern Siberia as of last week.
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