A heat wave thawed Siberia's tundra. Now, it's on fire.

For months, Siberia has been experiencing extreme heat due to a combination of persistent sunny weather and human-caused climate change. In addition to producing Arctic temperatures that cracked 100 degrees in June, the heat has fueled an enormous outbreak of wildfires, including fires on tundra underpinned by permafrost—normally frigid soil that is likely becoming even less frozen this year. This rash of fires on landscapes that are typically too cold, wet, and icy to burn is raising alarms for ecologists and climate scientists, who fear it’s yet another sign that the Arctic is undergoing rapid changes that could tip off a cascade of consequences both local and global. If fire becomes a regular occurrence on Siberia’s thawing tundra, it could dramatically reshape entire ecosystems, causing new species to take over and, perhaps, priming the land for more fires. The blazes themselves could also exacerbate global warming by burning deep into the soil and releasing carbon that has accumulated as frozen organic matter over hundreds of years...MORE