Even though it’s only June, heat records have recently fallen in a row in Siberia.

On Saturday, a record 37.9 degrees was recorded in Jalturovosk, according to climate expert and weather historian Maximiliano Herrera. Also in Baevo and Barnaul, 39.6 degrees and 38.5 degrees were recorded respectively, which is the highest level ever recorded.

– It’s truly exceptional, adds Herrera CNNadding that it is Siberia’s “worst heat wave in history”.

It seems unlikely that temperatures will drop anytime soon, Herrera believes.

The heat waves hitting Siberia have “major consequences for humans and nature”, Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus program’s climate monitoring service, told the channel. She adds that heat waves will occur more and more often if we do not quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Severe global warming

Warming Siberia may trigger changes in nature that will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions – and thus greater global warming in the long term.

Heat can melt permafrost, the frozen ground that covers large areas of northern Russia and Canada. Old plants remain in the ground and then begin to rot, leading to climate emissions.

Additionally, heat increases the risk of forest fires, which lead to CO₂ emissions. In areas where it is now exceptionally warm, significant wildfires occurred as recently as last year.

More heat waves

Also in 2020, Siberia was hit by a heat wave. Then average temperatures in parts of Siberia were 10 degrees above average, according to the EU’s Copernicus climate change service.

Martin Stendel of the Danish Meteorological Institute said abnormal temperatures in northwest Siberia would only occur once every 100,000 years without human-caused global warming.

Temperatures in Siberia during the winter of 2019 were also the highest recorded since measurements began 130 years ago.