Impact of snow on underground smoldering wildfire in Arctic-boreal peatlands

Abstract

Overwintering peat fires are re-emerging in snow-covered Arctic-boreal regions, releasing unprecedented levels of carbon into the atmosphere and exacerbating climate change. Despite the critical role of fire–snow interactions in these processes, our understanding of them remains limited. Herein, we conducted small-scale outdoor experiments (20 × 20 × 20 cm3) at subzero temperatures (−5 ± 5 °C) to investigate the impact of natural snowfall and accumulated snow layers (up to 20 cm thick) on shallow smoldering peat fires. We found that even heavy natural snowfalls (a maximum water equivalent snowfall intensity of 1.1 mm/h or a 24 h accumulated snowfall water equivalent precipitation of 7.9 mm) cannot suppress a shallow smoldering peat fire. A thick snow cover on the peat surface can extract heat from the burning front underneath, and the minimum thickness of the snow layer to extinguish the peat fire was found to be 9 ± 1 cm at subzero temperatures, agreeing well with the theoretical analysis. Furthermore, larger-scale field demonstrations (1.5 × 1.5 m2) were conducted to validate the small-scale experimental phenomena. This work helps us to understand the interactions between fire and snow and reveals the persistence of smoldering wildfires under cold environments.