File:After Nine Days, Fires Near Chernobyl Exclusion Zone Are Extinguished (NESDIS 2020-04-14 41420iodrevised).jpg

English: On April 12, 2020, NOAA-20 passed over Ukraine as severe blazes around the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, and the capital city of Kyiv, were finally winding down after their initial ignition on April 5. Police have arrested the party responsible for the flare-up, a resident of Rahivka village--which is 30 miles from Chernobyl--after he reportedly set fire to trash and leaves. Wildfires in this heavily forested area are not unusual. However, Ukraine’s unusually dry and warm winter has led to larger-than-normal fires, a recipe for disaster in the middle of a pandemic and within one of the most radioactive places on Earth. “These large fires,” explained Dr. William Straka,a researcher at​ ​Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS), “can loft radioactive particles into the atmosphere, ​as the fires are in the contaminated forests, depositing ​it downwind...towards Kyiv [which is under] lockdown due to the pandemic.” ​The exact region where the smoke goes is dependent on the wind at various levels, meaning the area and population affected could potentially be quite large depending on the amount of smoke produced.