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Bracing for Zombie Fires

  • Writer: Norton Bay Watershed Council
    Norton Bay Watershed Council
  • May 18, 2020
  • 1 min read

May 18, 2020

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Wild fires sometimes overwinter in peatlands and forests under a blanket of snow, only to reemerge in the following summer. Nicknamed “zombie fires,” these holdovers are becoming increasingly common as northern regions undergo large-scale warming and drought.

For example, the fires raging in Siberia this spring are likely zombie fires from last year when 37 million acres (an area two-thirds the size of the North Slope Borough) burned. After record winter temperatures, Siberia is once again on fire.

In the past, wet arctic peatlands served as a fire break, but with higher temperatures and increased evaporation, peatlands are drying and increasing the range of fires beyond the boundary of high latitude forests. Large peatland fires release vast stores of greenhouse gases like carbon and methane, further exacerbating climate warming and drought.

Photo by Brett Sayles (Pexels)

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