Kola wildfire smoke drift into Nordic neighbours
Fires on dry peat bogs at several locations west of Murmansk on Russia’s Barents Sea coast continue to send smoke into east Finnmark region in Norway and Finland’s Lapland region for the second day in a row.
There are several weeks since the area last saw rainfall, and with temperatures in July and August peaking beyond 25°C the risk of wildfires are high.
NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management Systems (FIRMS) could Tuesday evening detect wildfires at eight locations on the Kola Peninsula. The largest fire covers several square kilometers in the area between Ura Guba and the Northern Fleet’s submarine bases in Vidyayevo and Zapadnaya Litsa.
This fire has been burning since at least Thursday last week, a study of recent satellite images provided by Sentinel show.
Norwegian authorities monitoring situation
In Kirkenes, the Norwegian border town, smell and smoke have caused people to close doors and windows despite temperatures of up to 27°C Sunday and Monday.
Police and fire services say they are monitoring the situation, but underlines that there are currently no danger that any of the wildfires north on the Kola Peninsula will spread into Norway.
During the weekend, a new fire started on the Sredny Peninsula, north of Russia’s tourist tracks from Titovka towards the Fishermen Peninsula. There are few trees so far north, but burning dry peat bogs combined with wind along the coast makes it difficult to put out the fire, local Telegram channels in Murmansk can tell.
The smoke is also drifting into northernmost Lapland, Finnish broadcaster YLE informs.
Rescue services in Lapland have received several reports about the smell of smoke in the region over the past several days, according to the agency’s on-duty chief, Mika Hyvärinen.
The Russian edition of Barents Observer has posted this video report about the wildfires on the Kola Peninsula.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Wildfire smoke closes Hwy 1 between Enterprise, N.W.T., and Alberta, CBC News
Finland: Russian forest fire smoke drifts into Finnish Lapland, Yle News
Norway: Smoke from Canadian wildfires forecast to reach Norway, The Associated Press
Russia: New NOAA report finds vast Siberian wildfires linked to Arctic warming, The Associated Press
Sweden: High risk of wildfires in many parts of Sweden, including North, Radio Sweden
United States: Wildfires in Anchorage? Climate change sparks disaster fears, The Associated Press
