A large wildfire has been burning in Greenland for at least two weeks.
The wildfire was first spotted by satellites on 31 July and last photographed on 16 August when it was still growing. It was burning about 40 miles from the Greenland ice sheet and about 90 miles northeast of the city of Sisimiut.
The Greenland fire evolution since July 29 as captured by @ESA_EO 's #sentinel2 pic.twitter.com/Iuk9blyui9
— Stef Lhermitte (@StefLhermitte) August 9, 2017
Small fires are not unheard of in Greenland during summer but for such a large blaze – this one is estimated to cover 1,200 hectares – to burn for so long is believed to be unusual. Scientists at the University of Technology in Delft in the Netherlands said 2017 was by far the worst year for wildfires in Greenland since records began in 2000.
America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the blaze posed a risk to Greenland’s ice sheet, because falling soot turns the surface of the sheet black, which can make it melt faster.
An unusually large #wildfire continued to burn in the tundra of western Greenland in mid-August. https://t.co/l3nljBZNsW pic.twitter.com/lQYiErP9os
— NOAA Climate.gov (@NOAAClimate) August 18, 2017
It is not known what caused the fire, but people and lightning have in the past been responsible for starting fires in Greenland.
Greenland is in the middle of a particularly dry summer, which might account for the fire. Ruth Mottram from the Danish Meteorological Institute told Nasa that “the fire was preceded by some relatively high temperatures”.
“The monthly average temperature was 7.1C compared with a 1961-1990 average of 6.3C in July. The trend has continued into August as well,” she said.
Jessica McCarty, an assistant professor of geography at Miami University in Oxford, told NBC the blaze was “concerning”. “This is not usual,” she said.
Firefighters have not been dispatched to tackle the blaze because it is not threatening any people or homes. It is likely to burn until September when temperatures drop and snow starts to fall.
