Burning peat and wildfires bring unseasonal smoke apocalypse to Urals and Siberia

Smoke from smouldering peat bogs around Yekaterinburg reached the largest city in the Urals on 11 October - and has intensified since, despite the firefighters working to extinguish the fire. 

Several key roads in and around the city had to be shut due to extremely low visibility. 

A tourist plane from the Dominican Republic could not land in Yekaterinburg earlier today, and was diverted to Tyumen in Western Siberia. Yesterday the smoke from the peat fires around Yekaterinburg reached Chelyabinsk (215km south) and Tyumen (323km east). 

Several school were shut due to poor air quality; medics are advising people to stay indoors

Residents in all three regions share eerie videos of blocks of flats engulfed in smog, and roads looking like horror movie scenes with thick grey mist blanketing humans and vehicles. 

Several school were shut due to poor air quality; medics are advising people to stay indoors and take extra care when getting out.

Residents of Tyumen, Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk complained about strong smell of smoke since earlier today. 

Local emergency services also reported several active wildfires in the Tyumen region, which is extremely late for this time of year. 

Residents in all three regions share eerie videos of blocks of flats engulfed in smog, and roads looking like horror movie scenes with thick grey mist blanketing humans and vehicles

Middle of October in Russia is the time when snow starts setting across vast expanses of Siberia, and in the Urals. 

To have peat fires and wildfires active this late into the autumn makes season 2021 one of the longest in the recorded history.

The first wildfires of this year reported near the Pole of Cold in Oymyakon, Yakutia, in late April.