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Situation Update 28 May 2023 - Russia Wildfires Intervention 2023

We observe that rain has now moved further north, and importantly, there are very few hotspots now across the intervention area. As spring takes hold, the landscape is also observed to be greening as seen from latest satellite imagery.

Greenery now observed in the same region, where earlier on 8th May 2023, fires and smoke were still visible. For comparison with the same region on 8th May, refer to Figure 3.

What are Crisis Interventions?These are brief undertakings where Kyrios takes action to avert or lessen the severity of a disaster in a bid to reduce loss of lives and destruction.

Situation Update 28 May 2023

Several weeks have passed since Kyrios began her intervention on 8th May 2023 to extinguish the wildfires in a wide expanse north of Kazakhstan, stretching 1,200km from Yekaterinburg to Kurgan, Tyuman, Omsk and Novosibirsk. On 15 May 2023, we published an update that showed rains had arrived, but the rain front did not expand further north where many hotspots in Yekaterinburg and Tyuman have appeared.

In today’s update, we share data from JAXA (see Figure 1) that showed accumulated rains over the past 72 hours have extended further north.

Figure 1: 72hr accumulated precipitation data from 25th to 27th May UTC. Precipitation is observed further north over the previous 72hr period. Source: JAXA Global Rainfall Watch

After three weeks of intervention, hotspots have reduced significantly and the land looks to be regenerating.

Figure 2: Much fewer hotspots denoted in red showing active wildfires in Russia in the region north of Kazakhstan. From left, the red indicators are the regions Kurgan, Omsk and Novosibirsk. Source: NASA Worldview and MODIS Terra and Aqua Satellites.

In addition, we also observe that the landscape across the region (see Figure 3) is now turning green as spring takes hold. Hopefully, this indicates that the land has begun to regenerate. Figure 3 shows a satellite image on 25th May of the same region near Novosibirsk that was previously burning on 8th May 2023.

Figure 3: This is the same region from our 15th May situation update that showed numerous wildfires burning. You can see the scarring caused by the wildfires just two weeks ago. However, in a positive sign, greenery is also now observed even in the burnt areas. Hopfully this indicates that the land is regenerating. Notably, no further wildfires were observed in this area. Source: Copernicus EO Browser / Sentinel-2

Are you living in these regions? If so, we’re hoping to get more first-hand eyewitness accounts. Please reach us via email. Follow us on Twitter @Kyrios_Earth and Facebook @KyriosEarthHealerEn for updates.

Data sources: NASA Worldview, MODIS instrument aboard Terra and Aqua satellites, Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite, JAXA Global Rainfall Watch

About Kyrios’ climate interventions

Kyrios’ climate interventions across key areas on Earth aims to reverse anthropogenic climate change through deliberate weather modifications, healing the damage done to Earth’s systems and buying us time to make society more sustainable. This complements existing mitigation and adaptation measures. Kyrios also intervenes in climate disasters to reduce their destructive impacts on affected communities.

For more information on Kyrios’ climate crisis interventions, please go here. If you have questions, feel free to ask them here.

Crisis Interventions

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