In June, devastating wildfires have already destroyed vast swathes of the Arctic, marking some of the worst wildfires in recent history. These events are being amplified by a period of exceptional heat and drought.
These devastating forest fires are concentrated in the Russian Republic of Sakha, a region of Siberia where the average annual temperature is -7.5°C.
Even during summer, average temperatures usually hover between 0°C and 10°C. Despite its image as a frigid region, Sakha has experienced surprisingly hot summers and increasingly severe forest fires in recent years, including in 2021.
According to the latest information from the European Union’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), devastating wildfires in Siberia generated 6.8 megatons of carbon emissions in June 2024.
This figure represents the third highest level recorded in the last two decades, after June 2020 and 2019, when they recorded 16.3 and 13.8 megatons of carbon respectively.
“We carefully monitor emissions from wildfires in northern and Arctic regions during the summer months within CAMS.
Over the past three summers, emission levels from Arctic fires have remained relatively typical.
However, we have recently observed an increase in fires, driven by warmer and drier conditions similar to the widespread fires of 2019 and 2020,” Mark Parrington, principal scientist at Copernicus’ Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said in a statement.
“This is the third time since 2019 that severe wildfires have hit the Arctic. And it shows that this region of the northeastern Arctic has seen the largest increase in extreme wildfires in the last two decades,” Parrington said.
These recent fires are closely linked to the global trend of climate change, which is warming the Arctic at least four times faster than the rest of the planet.
Although the Arctic is currently most affected, this could be a precursor to what could happen elsewhere in the world.
“As ground zero for climate change, the Arctic is providing alarming signals with the increasing wildfires in Siberia. These events are clear indicators that dangerous climate tipping points are approaching for this essential system.
“What is happening in the Arctic is not confined to this region. The changes taking place there are increasing global risks for all of us. These fires are a wake-up call for urgent action,” said Gail Whiteman, Professor at the University of Exeter and founder of Arctic Basecamp.
Wildfires are also raging on the other side of the Earth, in South America. CAMS observations show that wildfire activity in the Pantanal wetlands, the world’s largest tropical wetland located in Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay, is at its highest in two decades, following an extremely dry rainy season.
