Fires ravaging southern Europe create rare fire cloud

Wildfires that have devastated southern Europe this summer have been among the most destructive in recent decades, with extreme fires in France producing a rare fire cloud, ERR reported.

The largest fires broke out in mid-July in France’s Gironde region in the southwest and in Spain’s Ávila and Madrid provinces. Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated, and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

Spanish officials said about 50,000 hectares burned in Ávila, making it the largest recorded wildfire in the country’s history. The fire later joined blazes in neighbouring provinces, destroying a total of 77,000 hectares.

NASA satellites first detected signs of the Ávila fire near Burgohondo on July 22 and 23. Satellite images taken at the end of July showed extensive damage around the area. The area around a reservoir was hit particularly hard, with homes, restaurants, campsites, ports and other facilities destroyed.

A similarly severe situation developed in southwestern France, west of Bordeaux. By the end of July, wildfires had destroyed more than 90,000 hectares there, the largest area lost to fires in France in recent decades, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Fires produced dangerous weather phenomenon

Environmental scientists said an unusually wet winter had made the landscape especially vulnerable to fires by promoting dense vegetation growth in grasslands and shrublands. Later heatwaves and drought dried out the vegetation, turning it into highly flammable fuel.

Several days of strong winds then intensified the danger. Gusts reached 65 kilometres per hour, helping the fires spread rapidly.

The fires in southwestern France became so intense that firefighters reported the formation of a rare pyrocumulonimbus cloud, also known as a fire cloud. The cloud drew its energy from the heat of the fire.

An international team of atmospheric scientists and wildfire specialists monitors these unusual clouds. Similar phenomena have occasionally been recorded in Spain and Portugal in recent decades, but specialists said this was the first reported fire-generated cloud in France.

Thousands of firefighters and military personnel were deployed to fight the fires in both countries. Aircraft dropped water while ground crews used bulldozers to create firebreaks.

By the end of July, the fires had been brought under control and authorities began cancelling evacuation orders.