Worrying videos and pictures show how the pristine polar region of northern Yakutia is ablaze.
Authorities in Siberia’s republic of Tyva declared a regional state of emergency due to ongoing wildfires exacerbated by prolonged hot and dry weather.
The fires are now raging some 10 to 15 kilometers from the megaslump crater - a large hole in the frozen Arctic soil which highlights the dramatic speed of thawing permafrost.
Most of the blazes are in a region that saw possibly the hottest-ever temperature above the Arctic Circle this month.
Officials say a wildfire in Southwest Washington that ballooned Sunday, causing regional air quality issues, may have been started by a firework or firearm.
The driest summer in 150 years has turned Yakutia into a tinderbox and seen wildfires tear through the region.
The Kostanai Region declared a state of emergency on Sept. 4 after forest fires burned a record 43,000 hectares (the size of Сarribean Barbados island) and forced an evacuation of 1,841 people.
The fires affecting Moscow are concentrated in the Ryazan region, some 250 kilometers to the south. This is not the first time smog has appeared in Moscow in recent months, with local authorities advising residents to wear masks to protect themselves earlier this month.
Russian weather officials and environmentalists have said climate change is a major factor behind the increase in fires.
Russia's Aerial Forest Protection Service is trying to suppress 136 fires over 43,000 hectares. Firefighters are using explosives to contain the fires and seeding clouds with silver iodide to encourage rain.
The Bristol Bay Times - Serving Dillingham, Naknek, King Salmon and Southwest villages
Gallery | The forest fires have covered an area larger than Greece and are emitting black smog that harms nearby populations.
Gallery | The fires, which were swept in from Mongolia by high winds, have caused almost $9.4 million in damage.
Photos of Yugorsk and other cities showed residential buildings fuzzy under a blanket of white smog.
Wildfires in Russia have burned across a combined area the size of Greece so far in 2020, surpassing official estimates threefold. Experts warn that this year’s blazes could become the most destructive in history.
Elsewhere in Russia’s coldest region desperate authorities spike clouds to induce rain and tame wildfires.
The wildfire started in a temperature of minus 20C, and is proving hard to extinguish because firemen cannot get water from frozen lakes and rivers. Normally the ground would be under thick snow by this time of year; this November several areas of eastern Russia, like its coldest territory Yakutia, say they are short of snow.
All Topics
All Countries
Any Date
Apply