Devastating wildfires engulf southern Russia, claiming lives and property
Image credit: Copernicus EU/Sentinel-2. Processed by Pierre Markuse. Acquired on May 6, 2023
A wave of rampant wildfires has swept across the oblasts of Kurgan and Tyumen in the southern Ural Mountains area and western Siberia in southern Russia, leading to loss of life and extensive property damage.
According to media reports, the destructive fires have claimed the lives of at least 21 individuals and razed more than 5 000 buildings to the ground.
As a response to the escalating situation, authorities have declared a state of emergency in the entire Kurgan Oblast.
The Joint Research Centre’s Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) forecasts that the risk of further wildfires in the affected areas remains high to extreme over the next 24 hours.
References:
1 Russia – Wildfires – DG ECHO – May 10, 2023
The Watchers team and our contributors bring the latest on extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, space weather, and all things science. We're all about making sense of the natural world and keeping you informed on what’s happening. Got a tip or a question? Hit us up using the form at newstips!
Published in the last 24 hours
- El Niño reaches 2.0°C on NOAA’s index, a tenth of a degree behind 1997–98 at the same point, as forecasters expect it to challenge the all-time record this winter
- The fastest wind gust ever measured on Earth, 253 mph, hit an oil island off Australia during Cyclone Olivia in 1996, and nobody noticed for more than a decade, until experts reading old data quietly took the record from New Hampshire's Mount Washington Epicenter
- In 1954, a grapefruit-sized meteorite crashed through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and struck Ann Hodges as she napped on her couch Epicenter
- A meteorite blew a crater beside a village near Lake Titicaca in 2007, and dozens of villagers who went to see it got headaches and nausea, though tests found nothing the rock had added to the water Epicenter
How awful. Prayers for those people.