Have Siberian fires been smouldering underground all winter?
If so it could be a warning
SEEN FROM the sky, the northern stretches of Siberia in early May were a splodgy white, their thinning winter snow cover interrupted by the brown veins of meandering rivers. Nestled within some of these curves, though, satellites picked up patches of soil warmer than the ground around them. The patches grew and multiplied as the month went on. Before it was over, some were visibly ablaze.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Fire down below”
From the June 6th 2020 edition
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