Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam have been able to show that fires in Alaska have overwintered under the ice cover.

Now satellite images from Siberia are showing signs of the same phenomenon.  

"Who would have thought that fires can overwinter in places where it is often more than minus 40 during the winter," says Sander Veraverbeke, a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. 

By comparing satellite images with what firefighters have seen in place in Alaska, researchers at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam have been able to establish that several of the large forest fires have overwintered. 

Early spring fires  

The signs that researchers are looking for are fires that start in early spring in places where no human factor or lightning strikes behind.

If these fires are also in areas where there was a fire last season - it can often be stated that overwintered fires are behind it. 

In Siberia, fires were discovered very early in the spring, which aroused the researchers' suspicions.

Now more research is needed on the spot to find out if it was really "zombie fires" that were behind it.

Can help firefighters 

The knowledge about wintering fires can be an effective tool for fire personnel when they have to put out the first forest fires in the spring, believes researcher Sander Veraverbeke.  

And it may be needed.  

This summer's large forest fires above the Arctic Circle broke records in carbon dioxide emissions. 

A total of 244 megatons of carbon dioxide were emitted, which is 35% more than in 2019, which also broke records, according to calculations from the EU satellite Copernicus.