It is not just the Amazon rainforest that is burning. More than 21,000 square miles of forest caught on fire in Siberia this month. That means that Russia is on track for its worst year on record for wildfires.
Since July, wildfires have been spreading in northern Krasnoyarsk Krai, the Sakha Republic, and in Zabaykalsky Krai, where the fires began. At the end of the month, the Siberian forest fire stretched across 6.4 million acres.
According to the Russian News Agency TASS, the Krasnoyarsk Forest Fire Center said that the causes of these forest fires were natural, originating in a combination of high temperatures, strong gusts of wind, and dry thunderstorms with lightning strikes. The average temperature for that region is typically between 58 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer; lately, temperatures have been recorded in the high 80s.
Full article at SALON.
