Siberian Heat Wave Is A ‘Warning Cry’ From The Arctic, Climate Scientists Say
Pine trees are
bursting into flames. Boggy peatlands are tinderbox dry. And towns in northern
Russia are sweltering under conditions more typical of the tropics. Reports of
record-breaking Arctic heat, registered at more than 100 Fahrenheit in the
Siberian town of Verkhoyansk on June 20 are still being verified by the World
Meteorological Organization.
But even without that confirmation, experts at the
global weather agency are worried by satellite images showing that much of the
Russian Arctic is in the red. That extreme heat is
fanning the unusual extent of wildfires across the remote, boreal forest and
tundra that blankets northern Russia. Those blazes have in turn ignited
normally waterlogged peatlands. Scientists fear the blazes are early signs of
drier conditions to come, with more frequent wildfires releasing stores of
carbon from peatland and forests that will increase the amount of
planet-warming greenhouse gases in the air....
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/siberia-heat-wave_n_5ef45a7bc5b615e5cd3943a7