DISCUSSION: A very hot and dry summer across Western Europe has set the stage for wildfires to quickly grow and advance. These wildfires have mostly been set by arsonists, according to local police who have promptly arrested several suspects in the wake of the ongoing fires. Firefighters are having trouble getting these forest fires under control as conditions have remained very windy and dry across the region. Several firefighters battling the blazes have been injured in the process. Several hundred people have been treated for smoke inhalation, while one report of a severely burned person has emerged as well. Unfortunately, 16 people are also dead from the fires raging across Portugal. As of August 9, multiple news sources confirmed that over 500 individual wildfires (which make up about 15 major blazes) are currently burning across Portugal and the Madeira archipelago, which is a chain of islands located to the southwest of mainland Portugal. Looking at Portugal’s climatological past, summer fires are common across the region each year, but this year’s drought situation coupled with unusually strong surface winds are only making matters worse.
Photos posted on Facebook (shown below) capture the devastating impacts of a wildfire on a local town. Visible satellite images obtained by the European satellite, Meteosat-10 on August 8, captured the smoke plumes over the Eastern Atlantic from space, as upper-level winds pushed the smoke and ash offshore. Local forecasters, looking at the various weather models, unfortunately do not see any substantial rainfall in the near-future, which will only make it more difficult for the firefighters already attempting to get these forest fires under control.
Support from neighboring countries such as Great Britain and Italy have begun to pour in, as Portugal remains hopeful in distinguishing the wildfires. Spain and Morocco have sent in five Canadair airplanes to help combat the flames. Several thousand people had to be evacuated from their homes as the flames moved closer on the mainland, meanwhile on Madeira island, 37 homes were destroyed due to a forest fire in the major city of Funchal. A state of emergency was declared in Northern Portugal as firefighters continue to battle ongoing wildfires in the Norte Region.
Portugal is not alone fighting against the flames; Southern France is battling a blaze that has threatened the city of Marseille, meanwhile Spanish officials are trying to contain nasty flames that have broken out in the northwest region of Spain, which is adjacent to Portugal. To learn more about other high-impact weather events from across Europe, be sure to click here!