Climate News Network- Tim Radford, July 26,2013

Magenta-flowered fireweed dominates a scene once covered in black spruce Alaska’s Yukon Flats
Image courtesy of Feng Sheng Hu of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Some recent fires in the forests of Alaska have been the worst for 10,000 years, researchers say – and they could happen elsewhere in this warming world.

LONDON, 26 July – There have always been fires in the cold forests of Alaska. Periods of burning are part of the ecological regime, and fires return to black spruce stands of the Yukon Flats at intervals of tens to hundreds of years.

But recent evidence suggests that fire is about to come back with a vengeance – or, in the language of science, “a transition to a unique regime of unprecedented fire activity”.

Read More:

http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/2013/07/alaskas-forest-fires-burn-more-fiercely/