record burning in Spain and Portugal

A record of a record of a record of the Wales of the land area of ​​Wales burned in the European Union this year and has become the worst forest fire season since the recording began in 2006.

According to EU scientists, Spain and Portugal were particularly hard, and about 1% of the entire Iberian Peninsula roasted.

The worsening fire season in the Mediterranean Sea was directly attributed to climate change in a separate study by the World Weather Atıf Group in Imperial College London.

Experts warn that more frequent and violent fires will continue in Europe.

More than two -thirds of the burning area in the EU are only in Spain and Portugal.

According to the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), it burned more than 400,000 hectares in Spain.

This record is more than six times the Spanish average for this period between 2006 and 2024.

The neighbor Portugal has experienced a record burning area of ​​270,000 hectares so far – almost five times the average for the same period.

This year, the combined burn area on the Iberian Peninsula 684,000 hectares – four times the London region and most often burned in just two weeks.

The fires are concentrated in the forested regions of Northern Portugal and in the northwestern regions of Spain’s Galicia, Asturias and Castil and León.

Protected areas such as Picos de Europa National Park and the large roads in the Camino de Santiago Hajj Network, which usually attract more than 100,000 visitors in summer, were influenced.

Events triggered The largest known distribution Firepoint power of the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

The smoke from fires significantly reduced the air quality in the region, and Southerly Wind sent smoke to France and England.

Climate change makes the conditions that cause fires more likely, but in a vicious cycle, fires also secrete more planetary carbon dioxide gas (CO2) to the atmosphere.

According to the EU, CO2, published by Fire in Spain this year, broke 17.68 million tons of record. This has been greater than the total annual CO2 emissions than forest fires in that country, where data is first saved by satellites since 2003.

For comparison, it is more than the total annual CO2, which was spread by all Croatia in 2023.

Firefighters are fighting flames This summer is in Europe.

According to a rapid reference to the World Weather Atıf Group in Imperial College London, people gained fire -prone conditions in Türkiye, Greece and Cyprus.

WWA said he was responsible for an increase of 22% in extreme weather conditions behind fires.

The Empire College, London, said that the Forest Fire Scientist Theodore Holding in London, Environmental Policy Center, causes more heat that dries the vegetation and increases its burning.

Researchers said that the continuous burning of fossil fuels will lead to more than these extreme fires.

Dr. Fredi Otto, Professor of Climate Science and WWA, was urgent to stop burning fossil fuels 10 years ago, defining as “deadly for humans and ecosystems”.

“Today, with 1.3C warming [since pre-industrial times]We see new ends in the behavior of forest fire that pushes firefighters to the borders, Mr. Mr. Comping said.

Scientists launched a rapid analysis of fires in Spain and Portugal and expected similar findings about climate change.

Rural depopulation in South and Eastern Europe also contributes to intensive forest fires.

In areas such as Spain and Portugal, an increasing number of young people are moving to cities to search for more profitable employment. Once the ruling agricultural land is abandoned and grew, eliminating fire breaks and increasing the amount of vulnerable flammable vegetation against intense flames.

Fires have always been an important component of Mediterranean ecosystems, and most of the natural wild life has tried to exist with fire.

In fact, species such as Iberian hare benefit from newly opened habitat and domestic mushrooms.

Management techniques such as the prescribed combustion and the removal of vegetation have been controlled for a long time.

And the re -growing of the burnt vegetation is once again stored in plants and soil, as it is stored in forest fire.

However, modern fires are larger, more often and more severe. According to Dr Thomas Smith, Associate Professor of Environmental Geography of London School of Economics, they can be part of the climate feedback cycle where the forest areas are trying to grow again before the next fire.

“A heating climate directs more often and larger fires, which directs the remaining carbon emissions in the atmosphere, which leads to a warmer climate.”

The increasing risk from a warmer and more dry climate makes fire management even more difficult and pose a threat to the stability of long -term ecosystem.

According to Professor Stefan Doerr, Director of Swansea University Center for Wildlife Research, there are also risks of soil erosion and water contamination from the ashes washed in rivers and reservoirs.

Efforts to manage excess vegetation in the fields of fire risk and advances in contact, fire detection and fire -fighting measure can help reduce the fires of number and violence in the future.