Current forest fires in the Russian Federation

Forest Fires in the Russian Federation  

23 July 2014

More than one thousand people were evacuated from their homes in the Sakha Republic – also known as Yakutia – which is the largest region of the Russian Federation, while states of emergency are also in effect in other major regions such as Kransnoyarsk and Irkutsk.

Famed for its cold and permafrost, Sakha is now under siege from wildfires.

Vyacheslav Popov, head of the republic’s Forestry Department, said: ‘The area of wildfires doubled. There are 37 active wildfires in the republic right now covering the territory of 76,000 hectares. There is a threat to eight settlements in five areas of Yakutia”

‘The biggest number if wildfires are here in Vilyui district’, said the the local administration head, Sergey Vinokurov.

‘They all started at the same time because of so-called ‘dry thunderstorms’ which we had last week.

‘We had to send helicopters to evacuate people out of the most dangerous areas and bring them to Vilyuisk’.

The town is an administrative capital some 600 kilometres northwest of capital Yakutsk.

As Siberia frazzles in the summer heat, states of emergency were introduced in areas of Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions, the Republic of Buryatia, and three districts of Trans-Baikal region, plus one of the Tyva Republic.

‘For the duration of the emergency situation, entering forests is strictly forbidden for the population’, and punishable by fines of up to 100,000 rubles ($2,800)’, locals were warned in Buryatia.

Wildfires are raging in ten district of Buryatia, including in the Trans-Baikal national park and the Barguzin wildlife reserve, it was reported. (Source: siberiantimes.com)

Large fires burning in Yakutia region, Russia on July 23, 2014
Source: LANCE-MODIS

This image, captured on 10 July 2014 by theModerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) onboard the Aqua satellite, shows fires on Central Russia. The hotspots appear as red dots.
Source: www.eurekalert.org

Fire Weather Index of Siberia for 24 and 30 July, 2014. Black dots are representing active fires which burned on 23 July.
Source: Global Fire and Early Warning System (GFEWS)

Accumulated map of thermoactive (burnt area) zones in Central Regions of Russia.
1 March – 2 July, 2014

More maps of other regions are available on request: fire@fire.uni-freiburg.de

Eurasian Experimental Fire Weather Information System

The system has been developed by forest fire researchers from Canada, Russia and Germany has been displayed on this website starting 18 July 2001. Complete information and a set of daily fire weather and fire behaviour potential maps covering Eurasia (the Baltic Region, Eastern Europe, countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, Mongolia) can be accessed at:
https://gfmc.online/fwf/eurasia1.htm

Latest Experimental Fire Weather Index (FWI) map for Eurasia (23 July 2014)
Note: The components of the Fire Weather Index and the meteorological data below are updated daily at ca. 15:00 GMT/UTC by the Northern Forestry Centre, Canada.
In the list below the latest maps (including the FWI) can be downloaded. These maps will provide the information at the date of clicking on the link.

Fire Weather Index ComponentsMeteorological Data

Fine Fuel Moisture Code (FFMC)PrecipitationDuff Moisture Code (DMC)Relative humidityDrought Code (DC)TemperatureInitial Spread Index (ISI)Wind directionBuildup Index (BUI)Wind speedFire Weather Index (FWI)

These combined images from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on the CALIPSO satellite and the MODIS on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows two different views of smoke from the Sakha fires on 18 July 2014. The top image was captured by MODIS and provides a true-color view of the fire. The yellow line indicates the path of the CALIPSO satellite and its laser. The CALIPSO transect shows a large plume of smoke about 10 to 12 kilometers high, about the same altitude as the cloud deck on the left side of the MODIS image. CALIPSO also detected a faint mixture of smoke and clouds below the primary smoke plume that was about 3 to 5 kilometers (2 to 3 miles) up. On the far left of the CALIPSO transect, a thin layer of clouds about 3 kilometers up is also visible beneath the overlying cloud deck.
Source: NASA Earth Observatory

WildlandFire relatednews from the Media:Note: The hyperlinks on the left side of each news are password-protected (User ID and password to enter the GFMC database are
available for partners of GFMC). The links on the right side (in brackets) are leading to the original news source; sometimes these news are expiring rather swiftly – a reason for the
establishment of the internal GFMC database):

For more media reports see GFMC Media page: https://gfmc.online/media-highlights-on-fire-policies-and-politics.html

New Book Publication on the Use of Prescribed Fire in the Russian Federation (published May 2013)

Background on Wildland Fires in the Russian Federation

Bibliography on fire in ecosystems of boreal Eurasia
One of the results of the first international fire science conference in the Russian Federation (1993) was the publication of a monograph on fire in boreal Eurasia, including some selected contributions on boreal North America. The literature cited in the monograph contains numerous publications which in many cases are not easily accessible. To facilitate literature search the bibliographical sources are provided by topic (chapter).
Goldammer, J.G. and V.V. Furyaev. 1996. Fire in Ecosystems of Boreal Eurasia. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 390 p.

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