Reacción a "Weather conditions conducive to wildfires have worsened significantly in Spain and France"

This study scientifically confirms and demonstrates a phenomenon that, particularly in recent years, we have been observing both in southern Europe and in other regions of the world: increasingly extreme conditions of heat, drought and wind are fuelling large-scale forest fires (which, by definition, are those covering an area of more than 500 hectares, sometimes reaching several tens of thousands). Once started, they spread at great speed and become uncontrollable, overwhelming the emergency response operation deployed to extinguish them.

The researchers behind this study, following a detailed analysis of climatological data, have found that the meteorological conditions conducive to a fire, once started, spreading uncontrollably and reaching enormous proportions – thereby creating its own weather system – have occurred much more frequently in certain areas of Spain and France over the last decade, compared with the normal period from 1981 to 2010. They link this new fire behaviour to changes taking place in the weather patterns affecting us, fuelled by the current context of global warming. Studies such as this are increasingly necessary to better understand how the global rise in temperatures is linked to global and regional atmospheric circulation, which can help us to better anticipate the impacts of extreme weather events, of which these mega-fires are one manifestation.