Forest Fires in Yakutia
Sahka Republic | Sibiria | Russia
Date of acquisition: July 26th, 2021 | 04:00:42 UTC
Sensor: Sentinel-2B L2A, Sentinel 3 OLCI
Coordinates: ca. 62.5°N, 114°E
This years’ June became the hottest since 1888 in Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutia. Only less than 2 millimetres of precipitation has fallen in the central of the republic, while the norm is 37 millimetres.
Due to the resulting severe dryness forest fires have been burning in Yakutia for more than a month now. Recently, there were around 150 active fires which have already destroyed more than 1.5 million hectares of forest. The area of currently active fires in the region even exceeds 2.1 million hectares.
The long-lasting unusual heat period in Russia’s Far East is one of the reasons for the fires. But environmentalists also complain that many forest fires have been started by careless behaviour, such as campfires or because dry grass was set alight accidently.
In order to assess the fire occurrence in all regions of the world, ESA FIRE CCI provides yearly maps of global information about burned areas.
