For The 1st Time In Recorded History, Smoke From Wildfires Reaches The North Pole

This aerial picture taken from an airplane on July 27 shows smoke rising from a forest fire outside the village of Berdigestyakh in Siberia’s Republic of Sakha.

Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images

Smoke from wildfires raging in Russia has reached the North Pole for the first time in recorded history.

Data captured by satellites flying over the region revealed Friday show just how much smoke is being produced from the hundreds of forest fires in the Sakha Republic in Siberia and just how far that smoke is spreading, NASA said in a release issued over the weekend.

Smoke blankets the sky for about 2,000 miles from east to west and 2,500 miles north to south, the report noted. Smoke from those fires has even been recorded as having traveled more than 1,864 miles to reach the North Pole — an unprecedented distance.