Over 100 individual fires are currently burning this week according to Avialesookhrana, Russia’s aerial forest fire management agency. A total of 2.85 million acres were listed as burning currently in Siberia, most in remote areas of the country not able to be reached by ground firefighters.
In Verkhoyansk in the Sakha Republic, over two million acres are currently burning, growing to five times its initial size over the last week thanks to a heat wave that has hit the region where temperatures have topped over 100 degrees this week in Verkhoyansk, touted to be the hottest day on record for the Arctic location.
“While fires are common at this time of year, record temperatures and strong winds are making the situation particularly worrying,” the European Union’s Earth Observation Programme, which is monitoring the situation, said in a statement to the Siberian Times.
