The Arctic is ablaze

THE EASTERN SIBERIAN landscape does not normally resemble hell. In winter it is blanketed in snow; in summer, its forests are lush and its wetlands soggy. This year, however, the region is on fire, as are large parts of the Arctic Circle.

Nothing on this scale has been observed since high-resolution satellite records of fires in the globe’s far north began in 2003 (see chart). A study in 2013 suggests that even the amount of burning seen in boreal regions in recent decades was outside the norm for the past 10,000 years. Researchers call this year’s events “unprecedented”. The data this summer are “insane”, says Guillermo Rein, an expert in peat fires at Imperial College in London.