Wildfires are raging inside the Arctic Circle.

Dozens of wildfires are raging in parts of Russia, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Eleven of the fires are within the Arctic Circle. The fires are a result of a dry and intense heatwave that has turned large swaths of Europe into a tinderbox.

Sweden has seen the most extensive Arctic fires, which have forced four communities to evacuate, according to The Guardian. The Swedish government has requested emergency assistance from the European Union to help put out the flames.

The Copernicus Earth observation programme, which gives daily updates of fires in Europe, shows more than 60 fires burning across Sweden, with sites also ablaze in Norway, Finland and Russia, including in the Arctic Circle.

Norway has sent six fire-fighting helicopters in response to its neighbour’s request for assistance. Italy is sending two Canadair CL-415s – which can dump 6,000 litres of water on each run – to Örebro in central southern Sweden.

In western Sweden, fire-fighting operations were temporarily halted near an artillery training range near Älvdalen forest due to concerns that unexploded ordnance might be detonated by the extreme heat.

All fires are a source of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases notes climate.gov. “Fires are also a source of sooty “black carbon,” which rises above the flames and drifts with the smoke to higher elevations”. These aerosols eventually will fall on the Greenland ice sheet as well as other glaciers throughout the arctic.  “This soot falls on the ice sheets, turning it from pristine white to a darker color. And just like how wearing a black shirt on a sunny day makes you feel hotter, with the ice wearing its black carbon shirt, it melts faster than it would due to climate warming alone”.

The Big Wobble reports on the wildfires in Europe.

The European Forest Fire Information System warned fire danger conditions were likely to be extreme across much of central and northern Europe in the coming weeks. EU officials said many of this year's fires are outside the traditional European fire zone of the Mediterranean, and are increasingly taking place at unexpected times of year.

snip

"There are clear trends of longer fire seasons and frequent critical periods in Europe that are leading to dangerous fire situations," said a European commission official.

Climate scientists said the Arctic and other areas that were once relatively fire-free are likely to become more vulnerable. "What we're seeing with this global heatwave is that these areas of fire susceptibility are now broadening, with the moors in north-west England and now these Swedish fires a consequence of that," said Vincent Gauci, professor of global change ecology at the Open University.

"Both these areas are typically mild and wet which allows forests and peatlands to develop quite large carbon stores," he added. "When such carbon-dense ecosystems experience aridity and heat and there is a source of ignition - lightning or people - fires will happen."