Cloudless skies, temperatures exceeding thirty degrees Celsius and crystal clear water enticing to swim. But what looks like a perfect summer day is a nightmare for the world. Russian Siberia is experiencing unusually hot days and temperature records are falling in the areas beyond the Arctic Circle.
“Although the city of Verkhoyansk is known as the Ice Pole, we measured a temperature of 38 degrees Celsius on June 20. This is abnormal for this area,” explains Anatoly Perfilyev, head of the hydrometeorological station.
Scientists warn – this spring is no longer exceptional. Temperatures in Siberia have been rising for a long time and the result is the melting of permafrost, ie eternally frozen soil.
As a result, houses are collapsing and the melting of otherwise frozen soil is also due to the recent oil spill in Norilland. Due to the unstable subsoil, the reservoir was damaged, from which 20,000 tons of petroleum fuel leaked, which contaminated not only the surrounding soil but also the rivers.
“In the northeast of Russia, the climate is warming and this is reflected in higher temperatures in winter. Winters are milder now. While in the 1970s we normally measured minus 55, minus 60 and even minus 64 degrees Celsius in Yakutia, we now consider during extremely cold winters, when temperatures drop to minus 45 degrees, “adds Viktor Šepelov, head of the Permafrost Institute.
The situation is exacerbated by large-scale forest fires. Last year was the worst in decades – the flames turned more than two and a half million hectares of forest into an incinerator, an area about the size of Belgium. And this year they broke out a month earlier than usual.
Methane, greenhouse gas and one of the culprits of global warming are being released from melting soil. Climate change in Siberia can thus accelerate global warming and with it the melting of glaciers, which is a threat especially to low-lying countries such as the Netherlands or Denmark.
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