Sweden: Small fires break out due to dry conditions
Several grass and forest fires broke out in Sweden during the Easter weekend and the meteorological office SMHI warns that the risk of more fires is great.
Bo Sandström is with the fire brigade in southern Älvsborg, a region around Borås in western Sweden. He tells Radio Sweden that some fires in the area started from people burning grass and yard waste during the Easter holiday.
Sandström say this happens annually only now, it is too dry to do so.
“It is usually very dry on the surface of the ground, but now it has gone down through the layers in the soil and it is really, really dry deep down in the ground, and that makes it worse for us,” Sandström says.
According to the Civil Contingencies agency MSB, it is unusually early for dry conditions to be causing problems in Sweden.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Future Arctic won’t look like today’s Arctic, report says, CBC News
Finland: Warm temperatures recorded across Finland, Yle News
Norway: Arctic Norway: temperatures on Svalbard have been above normal for 100 straight months, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Groundwater levels unusually low in Sweden despite melting snow, Radio Sweden
United States: 2018 was the 4th-warmest year on record, NOAA and NASA reveal, CBC News
