Siberian Wildfires Light Up Sky in Seattle

MOSCOW, July 11, 2012 (RIA Novosti)

Smoke from wildfires in the taiga east of the Urals accounted for some spectacular sunsets in western Canada and the United States in recent days, Msnbc.com said on Wednesday.

The unusually colorful red and orange sky over Seattle, Vancouver and other cities on the Pacific coast was due to plumes of smoke wafted across the ocean, the report said.

The occurrence is not unique: wildfire fumes often rise to the altitude of 12 kilometers where they are picked by strong winds, NASA expert Colin Seftor said in June.

This year's wildfires are worse than in 2010, when they engulfed most of central Russia, chocking the populous region with acrid smog, NASA quoted Greenpeace as saying. More than 200,000 hectares of forest already burned down in Siberia and the Russian Far East since the start of the summer, and 35,000 hectares were still engulfed by fire as of Wednesday afternoon, Russian emergency officials reported.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.