Major Fires in Siberia, Far East Mark Ominous Start to Russia's 2025 Wildfire Season

Forest fires have swept across Russia’s Siberian and Far East regions, signaling a harsh 2025 wildfire season with over 52 active blazes, widespread damage, and critical resource shortages.

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This early and severe start to the 2025 fire season in Zabaykalsky Krai echoes patterns observed in previous years across Siberia. LEO Network posts have documented recurring issues, including devastating wildfires in the TransBaikal region specifically in spring 2019 that led to a state of emergency and massive livestock losses. Other posts described black skies near Lake Baikal in 2019 and intense fires in Western Siberia in 2021, often linked to human activity and exacerbated by unusually warm, dry spring conditions seen in 2020.

Last year, Tyva Republic also faced a wildfire emergency. Furthermore, concerns about strained resources, mentioned in the current post, were highlighted previously, with a 2022 post noting that Russian firefighting assets were potentially diverted due to the conflict in Ukraine.

Notably, this year's early fire season driven by low snowpack is mirrored in Alaska, where the official season start was also advanced significantly in March 2025 due to exceptional early wildfire danger, resulting in immediate fire activity. This suggests a broader northern latitude trend of heightened early-season fire risk linked to changing environmental conditions.