May 16, 2018

Wildfires Rage in Russia's Far East, Siberia, Torching Massive Swaths of Land

Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Krai
Russia
by
Sean Breslin
,
The Weather Channel
This false-color image acquired May 9, 2018 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Terra satellite shows wildfires burning in Siberia, in orange. Burn scars from these wildfires can be seen in brown. Image: NASA
This false-color image acquired May 9, 2018 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA's Terra satellite shows wildfires burning in Siberia, in orange. Burn scars from these wildfires can be seen in brown. Image: NASA

A catastrophic wildfire season has persisted for weeks in Siberia and Russia's Far East, during which hundreds of thousands of acres have been destroyed, and the flames have even invaded some inhabited areas...

These wildfires are becoming more common due to warming temperatures, especially at the northern latitudes of the world...

Warmer-than-average, dry conditions have fueled these fires as they burn aggressively across the region