Overwintering 'zombie' fires may become more common as climate changes

Smoke rises from a hot spot in the Swan Lake Fire scar at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, U.S., June 16, 2020. Photo by Dan White/AlaskaHandout via REUTERS

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - In the boreal forests of the planet’s far north, where the climate is warming faster than almost anywhere else in the world, some wildfires are surviving winter snows and sparking back up again in spring.

Now scientists from the Netherlands and Alaska have figured out how to calculate the scope of those “zombie fires” that smolder year-round in the peaty soil.