Wildfires becoming more frequent in the north: See the maps
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- NASA has shared satellite data on wildfires in the far north. The maps are based on data that extend back to 2002.
- These maps show northern wildland fires becoming more frequent and widespread. In the past decade, the numbers of fires, particularly in northern Eurasia, has skyrocketed.
- Why are wildfires increasing in the north? NASA said rising temperatures and lightning reaching higher latitudes is the main driver.
NASA Earth Observatory posted this original story on January 14, 2026. Edits by EarthSky.
Maps show wildfires becoming more frequent in the north
In the far north, wildfires are breaking old patterns. Indeed, satellite data show that wildland fires once scattered across the Arctic are now surging in numbers – particularly in northern Eurasia – and many are burning more intensely than before.
These maps show the number of fires detected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on NASA’s Aqua and Terra satellites. The map below shows fire detections from 2002 to 2012. Meanwhile, the map above shows detections from 2012 to 2024. The largest circles indicate areas with 15,000 or more detected fires, while the smallest circles represent areas with 1,000 or fewer. Fire detection data are from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System.
Long-term patterns
Although the geographical distribution of high-latitude wildfires varies from year to year, the maps reveal some clear long-term patterns. In the 2000s, for example, fires north of 60 degrees latitude appeared across both North America and Eurasia. But starting in the early 2010s, their numbers skyrocketed, most dramatically in Eurasia. In fact, even the icy island of Greenland entered a new fire regime during this period, experiencing more large fires, though still too few to be visible on these maps.
Researchers attribute these trends to rising temperatures, which have made northern landscapes more flammable, along with a poleward expansion of lightning. Lightning is the primary ignition source for these fires. A working group of the Arctic Council, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, published a report in 2025 detailing the findings.
The number of fire detections and their distribution, however, is just one metric of the Arctic’s changing fire regime. According to NASA researchers, fires in this region are also burning larger, hotter and longer than they did in previous decades.
Jessica McCarty, Deputy Earth Science Division Chief at NASA’s Ames Research Center and lead author of the report, said:
Fire has always been a part of the boreal and the Arctic landscape. But now it’s starting to act in more extreme ways that mimic what we’ve seen in the temperate and the tropical areas.
Bottom line: See satellite data and maps that show wildfires becoming more frequent in the far north, especially in northern Eurasia. The numbers of fires in the past decade have skyrocketed.
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