By: Pepper Fisher

SEATTLE – You might remember last summer when our area had a smokey haze in the air for a couple of weeks courtesy of Canadian wildfires.

We’re seeing a similar haze here in western Washington this month, although not nearly as bad, and this year it’s not coming from Canada. This year you can blame huge wildfires burning in the Russian province of Siberia.

The National Weather Service says the jet stream is carrying smoke from the blazes in Siberia up across the interior of Alaska and then blowing it southeast into Western Washington.

So far, satellite data indicates about 20 fires were burning in the province in the first week in August.

NASA satellite images show that much of the area burning is peat soil. Siberia is having a record-breaking hot summer, which is thawing and drying frozen peatlands, making them highly flammable.

Kasha Patel from NASA says peat fires can burn longer than forest fires and release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.

While it looks like those fires will keep burning through summer, the weather pattern around the Pacific Northwest is expected to shift and those upper level winds will no longer bring us Siberian smoke.