4 ms·

It's hard to understand the scale of this until you compare it on a map to California's: Siberia: https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,62.895,94.307,4

It's hard to understand the scale of this until you compare it on a map to California's: Siberia: https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,62.895,94.307,4 https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,62.895,94.307,... California: https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,41.870,-93.164,4 https://www.windy.com/-PM2-5-pm2p5?cams,pm2p5,41.870,-93.164... It's basically an area the size of France, all burning at once. And it's siberia, so it's very very dense coniferous forest. Absolutely terrifying.

lasc4r 5y ago
Zoom out and center it around the pacific ocean if you want to actually compare them.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  That doesn't work with the Mercator projection, which Windy uses, as the distortion is specific to the latitude, regardless of where the map is centred. Contrast: Orthographic: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-169.82,55.55,585/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Equirectangular (closely resembles Mercator): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/equirectangular=-230,0,147/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Patterson (less distorted than Mercator): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/patterson=185.82,0.08,147/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Waterman Butterfly (minimal area distortion over land): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/waterman/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Winkel-Tripel (spherical variant, minimal distortion): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/winkel3=176.41,1.76,179/loc=-130,0 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... An equirectangular projection distorts the scale considerably at high latitudes, increasing apparent size, as does Patterson But even with non-distorted projections, the Siberian wildfires dwarf North America's.
heavyset_go 5y ago
Mercator projection probably makes the fire look bigger than it is. According to Google, as of a few days ago, the fires in Siberia burnt about 4 million acres. France is 159.087 million acres. In 2020, though, fires in Siberia burnt through 47 million acres, which is apparently bigger than the entirety of Greece[1]. [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-sibera-russia-burned-area-larger-than-greece-heat-wave/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-sibera-russia-burned-...
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  If you look at the Nullsoft links I've posted elsewhere in this thread, they're using an orthographic projection. The Siberian wildfires dwarf anything in North America. https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-227.07,64.70,1165/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-114.19,46.10,1165/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... They dwarf anything I've seen in North America over the past 3--5 years or so.
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    Cool, thanks for the links.
agilob 5y ago
wow, compare it with current fires in Greece

lasc4r 5y ago

Zoom out and center it around the pacific ocean if you want to actually compare them.

dredmorbius 5y ago
That doesn't work with the Mercator projection, which Windy uses, as the distortion is specific to the latitude, regardless of where the map is centred. Contrast: Orthographic: https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-169.82,55.55,585/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Equirectangular (closely resembles Mercator): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/equirectangular=-230,0,147/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Patterson (less distorted than Mercator): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/patterson=185.82,0.08,147/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Waterman Butterfly (minimal area distortion over land): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/waterman/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... Winkel-Tripel (spherical variant, minimal distortion): https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/winkel3=176.41,1.76,179/loc=-130,0 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... An equirectangular projection distorts the scale considerably at high latitudes, increasing apparent size, as does Patterson But even with non-distorted projections, the Siberian wildfires dwarf North America's.

heavyset_go 5y ago

Mercator projection probably makes the fire look bigger than it is. According to Google, as of a few days ago, the fires in Siberia burnt about 4 million acres. France is 159.087 million acres. In 2020, though, fires in Siberia burnt through 47 million acres, which is apparently bigger than the entirety of Greece[1]. [1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-sibera-russia-burned-area-larger-than-greece-heat-wave/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wildfires-sibera-russia-burned-...

dredmorbius 5y ago
If you look at the Nullsoft links I've posted elsewhere in this thread, they're using an orthographic projection. The Siberian wildfires dwarf anything in North America. https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-227.07,64.70,1165/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/level/overlay=cosc/orthographic=-114.19,46.10,1165/loc=130.793,65.398 https://earth.nullschool.net/#2021/08/11/0100Z/chem/surface/... They dwarf anything I've seen in North America over the past 3--5 years or so.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  Cool, thanks for the links.

agilob 5y ago

wow, compare it with current fires in Greece