Wildfires have broken out across the arctic circle.

The infernos currently raging throughout parts of Alaska, Greenland, and bits of northern Siberia and Scandinavia are believed to have been the result of lightning strikes, and made worse by an unusually hot summer caused by climate change, the BBC reported.

“Temperatures in the Arctic have been increasing at a much faster rate than the global average, and warmer conditions encourage fires to grow and persist once they have been ignited,” Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, told the broadcaster.

Some amount of wildfires are normal for the region and occur naturally as a way of clearing out dry underbrush. Russian authorities are not moving to contain the flames, hoping for a natural burnout. Alaska Public Lands Information Centers also cautioned against rushing to douse the flames.

“Fire-suppression efforts sometimes are more damaging than the wildfire,” they told BBC.

The fires come as the world experiences yet another summer with record-breaking temperatures. Across Europe this month, the mercury has soared with Germany, France, Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands all spending days over 100 degrees.