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SCIENCE Thursday 25 June 2020
The Arctic is on fire: Siberian heat wave alarms scientists

By DARIA LITVINOVA and gists at the Russian weath-
SETH BORENSTEIN er agency Rosgidrome t,
Associated Press a combination of factors
MOSCOW (AP) — The Arc- — such as a high pressure
tic is feverish and on fire — system with a clear sky and
at least parts of it are. And the sun being very high, ex-
that's got scientists worried tremely long daylight hours
about what it means for and short warm nights —
the rest of the world. have contributed to the Si-
The thermometer hit a likely berian temperature spike.
record of 38 degrees Cel- "The ground surface heats
sius (100.4 degrees Fahren- up intensively. .… The
heit) in the Russian Arctic nights are very warm, the
town of Verkhoyansk on air doesn't have time to
Saturday, a temperature cool and continues to heat
that would be a fever for up for several days," said
a person — but this is Sibe- Marina Makarova, chief
ria, known for being frozen. meteorologist at Rosgi-
The World Meteorological dromet. q
Organization said Tuesday
that it's looking to verify In this Thursday, June 18, 2020, handout photo provided by the Russian Emergency Situations
the temperature reading, Ministry, workers prepare an area for reservoirs for soil contaminated with fuel at an oil spill outside
which would be unprece- Norilsk, 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia.
dented for the region north Associated Press
of the Arctic Circle. Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit). et," Kiselyov said. partment at Greenpeace
"The Arctic is figuratively For residents of the Sakha The increasing tempera- Russia.
and literally on fire — it's Republic in the Russian Arc- tures in Siberia have been Persistently warm weather,
warming much faster than tic, a heat wave is not nec- linked to prolonged wild- especially if coupled with
we thought it would in re- essarily a bad thing. Vasilisa fires that grow more severe wildfires, causes perma-
sponse to rising levels of Ivanova spent every day every year and the thaw- frost to thaw faster, which
carbon dioxide and other this week with her family ing of the permafrost — a in turn exacerbates global
greenhouse gases in the at- swimming and sunbathing. huge problem because warming by releasing large
mosphere, and this warm- "We spend the entire day on buildings and pipelines are amounts of methane, a po-
ing is leading to a rapid the shore of the Lena River," built on them. Thawing per- tent greenhouse gas that's
meltdown and increase in said Ivanova, who lives in mafrost also releases more 28 times stronger than car-
wildfires," University of Mich- the village of Zhigansk, 270 heat-trapping gas and bon dioxide, said Katey
igan environmental school miles (430 kilometers) from dries out the soil, which in- Walter Anthony, a Univer-
dean Jonathan Overpeck, where the heat record was creases wildfires, said Vladi- sity of Alaska Fairbanks ex-
a climate scientist, said in set. "We've been coming mir Romanovsky, who stud- pert on methane release
an email. every day since Monday." ies permafrost at the Uni- from frozen Arctic soil.
"The record warming in Si- But for scientists, "alarm versity of Alaska Fairbanks. "Methane escaping from
beria is a warning sign of bells should be ringing," "In this case it's even more permafrost thaw sites en-
major proportions," Over- Overpeck wrote. serious, because the previ- ters the atmosphere and
peck wrote. Such prolonged Siberian ous winter was unusually circulates around the
Much of Siberia had high warmth hasn't been seen warm," Romanovsky said. globe," she said. "Methane
temperatures this year that for thousands of years The permafrost thaws, ice that originates in the Arctic
were beyond unseason- "and it is another sign that melts, the soil subsides and does not stay in the Arctic.
ably warm. From January the Arctic amplifies global then it can trigger a feed- It has global ramifications."
through May, the average warming even more than back loop that worsens And what happens in the
temperature in north-cen- we thought," Overpeck permafrost thawing and Arctic can even warp
tral Siberia has been about said. Russia's Arctic regions "cold winters can't stop it," the weather in the United
8 degrees Celsius (14 de- are among the fastest Romanovsky said. States and Europe.
grees Fahrenheit) above warming areas in the world. A catastrophic oil spill from In the summer, the un-
average, according to the The temperature on Earth a collapsed storage tank usual warming lessens the
climate science non-profit over the past few decades last month near the Arctic temperature and pressure
Berkeley Earth. has been growing, on aver- city of Norilsk was partly difference between the
"That's much, much warm- age, by 0.18 degrees Cel- blamed on melting per- Arctic and lower latitudes
er than it's ever been over sius (nearly one-third of a mafrost. In 2011, part of a where more people live,
that region in that period degree Fahrenheit) every residential building in Ya- said Judah Cohen, a winter
of time," Berkeley Earth cli- 10 years. But in Russia it in- kutsk, the biggest city in the weather expert at Atmo-
mate scientist Zeke Hausfa- creases by 0.47 degrees Sakha Republic, collapsed spheric Environmental Re-
ther said. Celsius (0.85 degrees Fahr- due to thawing and subsid- search, a commercial firm
Siberia is in the Guinness enheit) — and in the Rus- ence of the ground. outside Boston.
Book of World Records for sian Arctic, by 0.69 degrees Last August, more than 4 That seems to weaken and
its extreme temperatures. Celsius (1.24 degrees Fahr- million hectares of forests sometimes even stall the jet
It's a place where the ther- enheit) every decade, said in Siberia were on fire, ac- stream, meaning weath-
mometer has swung 106 Andrei Kiselyov, the lead cording to Greenpeace. er systems such as those
degrees Celsius (190 de- scientist at the Moscow- This year the fires have al- bringing extreme heat or
grees Fahrenheit), from a based Voeikov Main Geo- ready started raging much rain can stay parked over
low of minus 68 degrees physical Observatory. earlier than the usual start in places for days on end,
Celsius (minus 90 Fahren- "In that respect, we're July, said Vladimir Chuprov, Cohen said.
heit) to now 38 degrees ahead of the whole plan- director of the project de- According to meteorolo-