The city of Yakutsk in Siberia in Russia is known as the coldest city in the world. In winter, a few minutes in the cold without gloves can lead to excruciating pain and frostbite.
But now the city is covered in a haze of smoke from nearby fires tearing through forests that have been dried out by weeks of heat waves, according to CNN.
The fires are so big and the winds so strong that the smoke is moving 3,000 kilometers to the coast of Alaska. The smoke was so dense on Thursday that the authorities had to stop air traffic for large parts of the Republic of Sakha, reports AP.
– CONTROVERSIAL LAW: This is what the air looked like in Yakutsk on Monday. According to the AP, Russian law allows authorities to allow fires to burn in certain areas if the potential damage is not considered to be worth the cost of limiting the fires. It has long been criticized by environmental activists. Photo: Yevgeny Sofroneyev / AP / NTB
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The forest fire has so far destroyed 26 thousand square kilometers in Siberia, according to figures from the country’s forest protection service. This corresponds to almost five million football pitches.
Irreparable damage
Climate scientists call this year’s fires particularly bad. Most of Europe, the western United States, southwestern Canada, and some regions of South America experienced drier-than-average conditions in June.
“Already halfway through July, climate emissions are higher than the total of previous summers,” points out Mark Parrington, a researcher at Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service to CNN.
– Employees of the Russian Forest Service are digging a moat to stop a fire west of Yakustk. Photo: Alexey Vasilyev / AP / NTB
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Thomas Smith, professor of environmental geography at the London School of Economics, fears large areas of land could be destroyed forever.
– We are seeing an increase in fires in Siberia. Now they happen every ten to 30 years, while before they happened every century. What we fear is that the forest will not mature again and that we will end up with a kind of bushland or swampy grasslands.
Worst in 15 years
Forest fires are also raging in North America. In Oregon, eight fires have burned nearly 475,000 acres. The fire service says they have never before experienced similar flames as this summer, reports CNN.
The fire is so large and generates so much energy and extreme heat that it creates its own clouds and thunderstorms, writes American CBS.
On Wednesday, New Yorkers woke up to smoke and the worst air quality in 15 years, according to Wall Street Journal.
– SMOKE: It was not easy to see the Statue of Liberty in New York through the smoke on Wednesday. Photo: BRENDAN MCDERMID / Reuters / NTB
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The Canadian province of British Columbia declared a state of emergency on Wednesday due to forest fires. Almost 300 active forest fires are reported in the province.
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