Spatio-temporal patterns of wildfires in Siberia during 2001-2020

Siberia is one of the most fire-prone regions of northern Eurasia and also the region with the greatest warming in the Eastern Hemisphere over the last decades. In this study, spatiotemporal features of wildfires in Siberia and their recent trends and relationship with air temperature and precipitation during 2001-2020 were investigated. The main results show that the annual burned area (BA) in Siberia during the study period is 6.5 Mha with a non-significant positive trend (58 kha year(-1), p = 0.49), but analysis of the spatial patterns revealed regions with significant trends in BA: negative in the south of Western Siberia (-17 kha year(-1), p < 0.05) and positive in the center of Eastern Siberia (10 kha year(-1), p < 0.05). Positive trends of BA in Eastern Siberia were accompanied by a positive air temperature trend (0.11 degrees C year(-1)) and a negative precipitation trend (-1.64 mm year(-1)) in June.