Hotter summers set Lapland ablaze

By Matthew Schilke

This season, blazes in the Inari region have nearly doubled. Experts say future fire seasons will be longer and more intense due to climate change.

Ash rises off the charred landscape with every step. The wind coming off Lake Inari whisks these puffs away as they fade into the burnt ground. Where normally there should be bushes of berries along the island’s shores, there are now only charred remains.

This is the aftermath of a wildfire on an uninhabited island in Lake Inari, the largest lake in Finnish Lapland — something that climate experts warn is an increasingly common sight after near-record heat in Finland’s far north this summer.

Mika Rantanen, a researcher at the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), pointed out that this summer Lapland is on track to potentially be the warmest on average since measurements began.

“At the moment it looks like it will happen unless there is a cold air outbreak in the last days of the month. If this happens, it will be yet another indication of our ever-warming climate and will show that we have already exceeded the historical summer climate in Lapland,” Rantanen told Yle News.

This has been evident to residents this summer, as day after day Utsjoki — the northernmost municipality in Finland — recorded the hottest temperatures in the country. Rantanen pointed out that in Utsjoki, the municipality directly north of Inari, the thermometer has climbed above 25 degrees for nearly a month.

This fire was one of 17 that have broken out this summer in Finnish Lapland’s Inari region. According to Timo Nyholm, Duty Fire Officer at the Lapland Rescue Department, Inari sees about 10 wildfires in an average fire season over the summer months and this year the total is expected to pass 20.

A lack of precipitation has dried out the soil and the vegetation around Lake Inari making the terrain highly susceptible to fires, prompting wildfire warnings from the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) covering much of the summer.

After some much needed rain hit that stretch of Lapland this weekend, the FMI removed the warning.

Changing climate increases fire risk

There is likely a link between the fires and climate change impacting northern Lapland, according to Rantanen.

“The warmer temperatures mean that the fire season becomes longer and the “fuel” — plants and organic matter — become drier, thus increasing the probability of fires,” Rantanen said, adding that warmer temperatures also increase plant activity, providing more material to burn.

FMI researcher Outi Kinnunen has focused her research on the shifting dynamics of wildfires in the far north of Fennoscandia, the region that comprises Finland, Norway and Sweden.

“Climate change is extending the fire season. As the climate warms, snow cover diminishes earlier, summer temperatures rise, and land surfaces become drier, even though overall precipitation is expected to increase,” Kinnunen said.

According to her research, the effects of fires are likely to increase by the end of the century.

“The annual number of fires and burnt area is projected to increase due to increase in fire risk,” Kinnunen told Yle News.

In many of the fires that have occurred around Inari this summer, the trees remain intact while plants on the ground burn. In that sense, these are not like the types often seen in boreal forests.

“In most cases, it’s primarily brush and ground vegetation that burns while trees often survive, which can benefit biodiversity. However, based on my research, fires in Lapland may become more intense by the end of the century compared to the period from 1981 to 2010. Extremely dry seasons could lead to severe fires,” Kinnunen warned.

Reaching fires from afar

Many of the fires can burn unattended, as the vast Lapland wilderness means firefighters travel vast distances to respond.

The municipality of Inari is the largest in Finland by area and covers a diverse chunk of Lapland stretching from the Russian border to the Norwegian border.

The two largest settlements in the municipality are Inari itself and Ivalo. Inari has a permanent population of just over 500, while the village of Ivalo is comparatively cosmopolitan, with a total year-round population of around 3,000.

Even though the Lapland Rescue Department has stations in both villages, some of these fires break out on remote islands on the other side of the lake, which can take firefighting personnel some time to respond.

Getting to the scene of a wildfire can involve cars, fire engines, boats, jet skis, all-terrain vehicles and occasionally helicopters. Nyholm said that some calls can require firefighters to be out in the field up to 10 hours, which is followed by a few hours of maintenance on their gear.

“This summer we’ve had fires that take two hours to travel one way,” Nyholm told Yle News.

If conditions are windy, it can complicate the job for firefighters, both by spreading the fire and making it more difficult to arrive at the fire scene by boat.

Many of these wildfires have been started by campfires, despite the official wildfire warnings issued by FMI.

“People should be extremely careful with fire, especially during the fire warning season,” Kinnunen from FMI told Yle News, advice that was echoed by Nyholm from the fire department.

Fire and water

One factor behind the fires is that time on the lake spent fishing, berry picking, hunting or camping often involves making a fire.

Even if there are wildfire warnings in place, Nyholm said some people do not follow the warnings.

Any open fire — or a fire that can spread across the ground or by airborne sparks — is forbidden during a wildfire warning. Nyholm explained that even if a campfire looks extinguished, embers can be reignited by a gust of wind.

Nyholm recommended that those enjoying nature should pack a gas camping stove instead, an option that makes it much easier to be sure that a flame is extinguished.

“Part of Finnish culture — fishing, hunting, hiking culture — is that you make fire. But people must be careful, think about what they are doing,” Nyholm told Yle News.

Related stories from around the North: 

Canada: N.W.T. communities learning to adapt as heat waves become more common, Eye on the Arctic

Finland: Finland sees “exceptionally warm” July as global temperatures hit record highs, Yle News

Greenland: Alarming, above-average ice loss in Greenland due to rising temperatures, Eye on the Arctic

Norway: Longyearbyen sees first time ever above 20°C in August, The Independent Barents Observer

Sweden: Another year of shrinking glaciers predicted in Sweden’s Far North, CBC News

United States: Alaska’s North Slope sees record-breaking heat, among state’s other climate oddities, Alaska Public Media