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Spain wildfires ‘under control’ as weather conditions improve

Multiple wildfires that have ravaged northern Spain in recent days have subsided, largely thanks to improved weather conditions, authorities said on Saturday.

Published: 1 April 2023 17:10 CEST

This picture shows firefighter vehicles driving past forest burnt by a wildfire near Castellon.

This picture from March 29, 2023 shows firefighter vehicles driving past forest burnt by a wildfire near Castellon. Multiple wildfires that have been ravaging northern Spain have subsided, authorities said on Saturday. Photo: JOSE JORDAN / AFP

In the Asturias region, where the blaze has ravaged 11,000 hectares (27,181 acres), 71 fires were still underway on Saturday, compared to over 90 the previous day.

But almost all of them are “under control and stabilised”, Oscar Rodriguez, head of the region’s emergency services, told journalists.

Firefighters have been helped by light rain and favourable winds.

Adrian Barbon, the regional president of Asturias, blamed arson for “clearly a coordinated action by environmental terrorists”, which could have caused “hundreds of deaths”.

In neighbouring Cantabria, two out of 35 fires recorded on Friday are still burning, but both are “under control”, the regional government said on Twitter.

In the eastern region of Valencia, nearly 4,700 hectares (11,614 acres) have been consumed by the flames.

Spain is experiencing long-term drought after three years of below-average rainfall.

In 2022, a particularly bad year for wildfires in Europe, Spain was the continent’s worst-hit country. Nearly 500 blazes destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Climate change amplifies droughts that create ideal conditions for wildfires to spread out of control and inflict unprecedented material and environmental damage.

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Will this summer in Spain be as hot as the previous two?

2023 was in fact the second-hottest summer Spain had ever experienced – the hottest being just one year earlier in 2022.

During that year, 11,300 people died in Spain alone due to the abnormally high temperatures, marine life perished in the warming seas and even train tracks warped and became deformed.

All eyes are looking toward this summer to see what will happen and if it will be as roasting as the previous two.

READ ALSO:

According to the climate service Copernicus-EU, above-normal temperatures are predicted across southern Europe this summer.

And in Spain, there is a 50-70 percent chance that this summer will be one of the hottest 20 percent on record, and it will properly begin in June.

According to Spain’s State Meteorological Agency AEMET, we have already seen an abnormal rise this May.

Its quarterly prediction, which will take us up to the end of July (typically the hottest part of the summer here in Spain), states that it will almost certainly be warmer than usual on the Mediterranean side of the country, as well as the Balearic and Canary Islands.

Copernicus agrees with these predictions and has indicated that it’s very likely to be hotter than normal in certain areas of the country. It particularly singled out the Valencia region, Murcia (except the south), northern Almería and Granada, Ibiza and Formentera and the western Canary Islands.

It’s getting more and more difficult to know exactly what ‘above normal’ temperatures are, considering what Spain has experienced the last few years, but the reference period that many experts are basing their predictions on is from 1991-2020.

When it comes to rainfall, Copernicus has forecast that the “most likely scenario is a summer with less rain” than usual.

AEMET agreed with the prediction, stating on its X account that “most likely rainfall will be less throughout the country than what is already normally scarce in the summer season”.

Para este próximo verano, lo más probable es que las lluvias sean inferiores en todo el país a las ya de por sí normalmente escasas en la estación estival. pic.twitter.com/YEasMQwzyc

— AEMET (@AEMET_Esp) May 12, 2024

This is bad news for many parts of Spain, such as Catalonia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands, which have already been experiencing an ongoing drought over the past two years.

Luckily, spring rains have managed to fill reservoirs just enough to see us through the summer at this point, but more rain will definitely be needed come autumn.

READ ALSO: Will drought restrictions affect summer holidays in Spain?

While scientists agree the sizzling temperatures experienced over the past few summers are down to climate change, last year in 2023, the cyclical phenomenon known as El Niño also had a part to play in global weather patterns.

When the seas become cooler on average and it has a cooling effect on the planet, this is partly down to the effect of La Niña.

This year is supposed to be dominated by La Niña and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the US, La Niña has a 49 percent chance of developing between June and August and a 69 percent chance between July and September.

But this doesn’t necessarily mean that this summer will be cooler than last year.

As of May 16th 2024, we’re undergoing a neutral period known as El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

Despite the global cooling effect of La Niña in 2022, it was still the planet’s sixth hottest year and the hottest in Spain ever recorded.

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