It appears that the Arctic might witness a resurgence of the "record blazes" that were observed there last year, as remnants of said fires could've persevered until now, the Sun reports.
According to the newspaper, whole areas in Alaska, Canada, Siberia and Greenland were ravaged by fire in 2019, "largely due to hot weather and a spate of dry storms", and it is not unheard of for fires in cold regions to survive underground during winter, only to emerge in spring.
And as Mark Parrington, senior scientist at the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, explained, they have "seen satellite observations of active fires that hint that 'zombie' fires might have reignited."
"We may see a cumulative effect of last year's fire season in the Arctic which will feed into the upcoming season, and could lead to large-scale and long-term fires across the same region once again", he said.
These so called "zombie fires" can apparently persist for months, smouldering underground in areas such as peatlands, only to flare once again once the weather becomes warmer.
"It really does describe what these fires do," said Dr Thomas Smith, an environmental scientist the London School of Economics. "They recover and they’re difficult to kill."