This is the best summary I could come up with:

So-called zombie fires are burning under thick layers of snow at an unprecedented rate, raising fears about what the coming summer may bring.

People driving on the highway through the town of Fort Nelson, British Columbia (BC) in the winter can easily see - and smell - the clouds of white smoke flowing from the soil around them.

Sonja Leverkus, a firefighter and scientist who is local to the small north-eastern BC town, recalled driving during a snowstorm in November, but the snowfall didn’t look white.

They are flameless smoulders that burn slowly below the surface, and are kept alive thanks to an organic soil called peat moss common in North America’s boreal forest and to thick layers of snow that insulate them from the cold.

The province has seen so little snow that one ski resort in BC’s South Cariboo region was forced to close its doors in early January for the remainder of the season.

And with it being an El Nino year, which spells out hot and dry conditions for western Canada, Prof Flannigan said that “the stage is set for a very active spring”.

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