Climate change made France, Spain wildfire conditions far more likely, scientists say
Scientists said human-caused warming made the fire weather at least 20 times more likely in central Spain and doubled the odds in southwestern France.
- A study by World Weather Attribution found human-caused climate change significantly increased the risk of extreme fire weather that sparked devastating wildfires across Spain and France.
- Global warming made the hot, dry, and windy conditions at least 20 times more likely in central Spain and at least twice as likely in southwestern France.
- A wet winter followed by severe drought amplified the danger, creating a surge of vegetation growth that subsequently dried out and acted as heavy fuel for the blazes.
- In today's climate, fire weather of this intensity is expected every six years in central Spain and every 20 years in southwestern France.
- Scientists warned that land abandonment and forest composition exacerbated the risks, emphasizing the need for proactive landscape planning alongside traditional firefighting efforts.
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Human emissions of greenhouse gases have made extreme weather events, which drive fire risk, twice as likely in France and at least 20 times more likely in Spain, a new rapid analysis of this summer's devastating fires shows. "What we are seeing in France and Spain is not just bad luck, it is a clear sign of the escalating effects of human-caused warming," says Clair Barnes, one of the researchers behind the report.
Human-caused climate change has made the fires in France and Spain worse, according to a rapid analysis from the research network World Weather Attribution (WWA).
Scientists have explained why such large-scale fires broke out in Europe this yearScientists have found that climate change has made weather conditions for forest fires in France and Spain significantly more likely. Heat, drought and wind are now more likely to combine due to global warming.
Scientists: Climate change made Spain, France fires more likely
Climate change’s fingerprints are all over the extreme fire weather that sparked this week’s devastating wildfires in Spain and France and has spiked Southern Europe’s burning the past eight years, two new studies conclude. Human-caused climate change made the hot and dry conditions responsible for Spain’s record-sized inferno 20 times more likely to happen, and it doubled the chances of extreme fire conditions for the flames in France, scientis…
In Spain and France, it burns as much as never before. However, according to a scientific estimate, this will become the new standard in the future. Climate change creates conditions that make such forest fires 20 times more likely in Spain.
It is expected that events of these will occur once every six years in the center of Spain. Fires have displaced about 300,000 people. They are said to be increasing impacts of anthropogenic warming.
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