Overwintering zombie fires may become more common as climate changes Reuters 4 hrs ago
By Yereth Rosen
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, May 19 (Reuters) - In the boreal forests of the planet’s far north, where the climate is warming faster than almost anywhere else in the world, some wildfires are surviving winter snows and sparking back up again in spring.
Now scientists from the Netherlands and Alaska have figured out how to calculate the scope of those “zombie fires” that smolder year-round in the peaty soil.
From 2002 to 2018, an average of about 1% of the burning in Alaska and in Canada’s Northwest Territories was caused by overwintering fires that survived from one summer to the next, according to a study https://go.nature.com/2RtzSCk, published Wednesday in Nature. But in one year, zombie fires accounted for 38% of the region’s burning.
Posted: May 19, 2021 1:36 PM ET | Last Updated: May 19
A specialist sprays water while extinguishing a forest fire in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia, Russia in August 2020. Zombie fires fires that smoulder underground through the winter and rise from the earth in the spring were blamed for some of the extreme fires in Russia last year.(Russia s Aerial Forest Protection Service/REUTERS)
Zombie Fires Are a Strange, Rare Phenomenon That Is Threatening the Environment Jennifer Leman
Researchers have developed a computer algorithm that can identify zombie fires that smolder in Arctic, carbon-rich peat soils.
Zombies fires (also known as overwintering or holdover fires) that burn through peat-laden soil can release massive amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
Understanding the conditions that lead to these fires can help fire managers target resources at the beginning of the fire season.
The searing summer heat that fuels piping-hot wildfires in northern boreal forests may be the mystery cause of a strange, rare phenomenon: zombie fires. These undead blazes smolder deep underground in carbon-rich peat soils, and then reignite months later.
Well there are Zombie Fires in the arctic yup that s a thing boxden.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from boxden.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.