After a record-breaking heatwave in Arctic, wildfires spread across the areas of Greenland, Siberia, and Alaska at unprecedented levels, surpassing last month's 50 megatonnes CO2 emissions record.

I think it's fair to say July Arctic Circle wildfires are now at unprecedented levels having surpassed previous highest Copernicus GFAS estimated July total CO2 emission (2004/2005), & last month's 50 megatonnes, and still increasing. —Mark Parrington, senior scientist at ECMWF

To see the 50 Mt in context, it is the equivalent to 2017 full year’s worth of national fossil fuel CO2 emissions for Bulgaria, Hungary and Sweden.

Approximately 100 Mt CO2 emitted by Arctic wildfires between 1 June & 21 July 2019 is getting close to 2017 fossil fuel CO2 emissions of Belgium. Those are huge numbers and it's no brainer that wilfires’ smoke is a significant source of CO2 emissions.

Heavy smoke circulation

You can see a predicted circulation of heavy smoke directly in the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System (CAMS) layer on Windy (Aerosol layer).

Or watch the short video depicting predicted circulation of heavy smoke, from many Krasnoyarsk Krai and Central Russia wildfires, around giant low over next 2 days (satellite imagery below).

To imagine how big the wildfires are in Russia, Alex Kokcharov, who is a Country risk analyst focused on Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Eurasia and Caucasus, gives you a nice example.

In Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions, Siberia, eastern Russia, some 900,000 hectare (or equivalent to entire land area of Cyprus or Lebanon) is affected by forest fires.

Wildfires satellite imagery

Pierre Markuse has amazing Flickr gallery of satellite images on the subject. Below are just few examples of how hard were Russia and Alaska hit by the wildfires.

Wildfires in Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sakha Republic

21 July 2019

Several wildfires and smoke plumes between about 57°N and 70°N in Krasnoyarsk Krai and Sakha Republic, Russia. Aqua and Terra MODIS data through NASA Worldview.

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Download this image in the original 4128 x 5040 px resolution here

Wildfires east of Batagay, Verkhoyansky District

16 July 2019

About 67.8°N, east of Batagay, Verkhoyansky District, Sakha Republic, Russia

Download this image in the original 9930 x 5040 px resolution here.

Download this image in the original 9930 x 5040 px resolution here.

Wildfires near Lena River

16 July 2019

About 66°N just south of the Arctic Circle near the Lena River, Sakha Republic, Russia

Download this image in the original 1799 x 1926 px resolution here.

Wildfires in Alaska

16 July 2019

Wildfires at about 67°N, Alaska, USA

Download this image in the original 4128 x 5040 px resolution here

Wildfire activity in the Arctic Circle in June 2019

Unprecedented wildfire activity in the Arctic Circle in June 2019, with notable widespread fires in Sakha Republic, Russia for much of the last 3 weeks, as estimated with CAMS Global Fire Assimilation System (GFAS) data based on MODIS.

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