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WILDFIRES

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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CLIMATE CRISIS

‘Far hotter than normal’: Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Rainy periods have marked June so far in parts of the country, but Spain’s meteorological agency has warned that it could still have one the hottest summers on record.

Published: 20 June 2024 09:43 CEST
'Far hotter than normal': Spain set for scorching summer after rainy June

Spain could be set for a “far hotter than normal” summer this year, with experts predicting that it could be one of the hottest on record. This is according to forecasts by Spain’s state meteorological agency (Aemet).

Aemet spokesman Rubén del Campo stated that “there’s a high probability that temperatures will be much higher than normal and that this summer will be among the hottest 20 percent on historical record.”

READ ALSO: 2023 was second-hottest year on record in Spain

He added that the probability of a scorching summer is between 70-100 percent in most of Spain, and that the unusually warm weather could be felt most in the northern half of the peninsula, as well as the eastern Canary Islands.

Aemet posted some weather forecast maps to its X/Twitter account in recent days, with the entirety of the Spanish mainland and islands covered in dark red, meaning a high probability of abnormally high temperatures. “The high probability” of a heatwave, it said, “extends to the rest of southern Europe and northern Africa.”

This follows something of a stop-start June with rainy periods in many parts of the country. Del Campo admitted that so far “it seems that the summer hasn’t started” because temperatures are “slightly” lower than normal for the time of year, but stressed that Aemet forecast models predict that the intense heat will not take long to arrive. 

A marked rise in temperatures is expected for this weekend, although they could drop again next week before going up again as high summer approaches, according to forecasts.

With regards to rainfall, it seems it will likely also be a dry summer with little rain. Del Campo predicted “a summer with less rain than usual, especially in the north and inland peninsula”, where there is a 50-60 percent probability of rainfall below historical averages for the time of year:  “The most likely scenario is that of a quarter with less rainfall than usual,” he added.

Though an unusually wet Easter period helped to refill some of Spain’s dwindling reservoir reserves, a long period of dry weather will likely worsen Spain’s ongoing drought conditions. The problem is particularly bad in Catalonia and Andalusia.

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

Looking back on spring temperatures, Aemet data shows that it was also one of the warmest on record. Del Campo stressed that it was “the eighth warmest spring of the 21st century and the tenth since the start of the historical series in 1961.”

The average temperature during spring was 13.1C, which is 0.7C above average values for the 1991-2020 period. “Eight of the ten warmest springs on record have been recorded since 2006, further evidence of climate change,” Del Campo said.

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