Wildfire season is coming earlier and earlier to this area of Russia. Last year saw a huge numbers of Spring fires in this area. This year the area has already had a rash of wildfires in May and it looks as though the wildfires are starting up again in the Irkutsk region of Russia right around Lake Baikal. Of note, this lake is the largest (by volume) freshwater lake in the world, as well as the deepest. As mentioned in the previous posting from May, permafrost, when frozen, lies dormant not providing any fuel for fires, but when thawed, permafrost is a perfect fuel of “peat-like organic matter” that burns like dry grass. Since the frozen tundra of Siberia is covered with permafrost it provides a near unending source of fodder for wildfires that break out in the area due to lightning strikes or careless human interactions.
This natural-color satellite image was collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Aqua satellite on June 18, 2015. Actively burning areas, detected by MODIS’s thermal bands, are outlined in red. NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption: NASA/Goddard, Lynn Jenner