An Unusually Large Wildfire Has Burned for Weeks in Icy Greenland

Source: NBC News

AUG 19 2017, 8:12 PM ET

by ELIZABETH CHUCK



There's something curious happening in icy Greenland: a wildfire that has been burning for weeks.

The wildfire appears to be historic in both its size and its duration, but no one can say for sure because Greenland doesn't have longstanding records of fires. Officials haven't had much of a need for them, seeing as nearly 80 percent of the Arctic island is covered in an ice sheet.

"There are wildfires, but it's not a typical wildfire environment, and it's a remote area," said Stef Lhermitte, a remote sensing scientist at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

At about two square miles, this wildfire is relatively small compared to others around the world. But it's the biggest in Greenland since satellite record-keeping began in 2000.



Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/unusually-large-wildfire-has-burned-weeks-icy-greenland-n793511