Wildfires in Siberia double in a decade

Ten times more wildfires in Russian Arctic than a decade ago as ice melts and gives way to flame

the Telegraph,

14 August, 2018

Russia this year has suffered the most Arctic wildfires since satellite monitoring started as climate change creates the conditions necessary for blazes to start and then take hold.

Monitoring by two Nasa satellites recorded 10,057 hotspots in Russia's Arctic territory by the start of August, 10 times more than were found in the same period a decade ago, according to data provided to The Telegraph.

That number is the highest since the satellites recorded their first full year of images in 2003.

Is the denialist Telegraph changing its spots? The rest of the article is behind a paywall

Concern over raging wildfires as smoke from Siberia crosses Alaska and Canada, reaching New England

‘Taiga burning’ - as scared bears are driven out of their natural habitat towards settlements where they areshot as danger to people.

Dramatic new pictures show the latest forest infernos as reports come from the US that wildfire smoke from Siberia has blown some 5,000 miles to New England.

This comes as clouds are being spiked with chemicals in Yakutia to provoke rain to extinguish flames - and amid claims from environmentalists that the scale of forest fires has been hidden by the authorities.

In the US, Storm Center 7 Chief Meteorologist Eric Elwell was quoted saying: ‘Strong winds aloft in the polar jet stream carried some of the smoke from the fires across the Bering Strait and into northern Alaska, then southeastward into central Canada and eventually across the Great Lakes and eastward into southern New England.’

The Weather Channel illustrated a report on the problem with a graphic infra-red picture from a Sentinel 2 satellite image taken more than two months ago - on 9 May - over Zeya Reservoir in Amur region.....