Spain, after having overcome three fires which broke out this weekend, is on Monday on alert for the increased risk of fires caused by a new period of heat wave, the third of the summer.
The situation is just as worrying in Portugal, where hundreds of firefighters remain mobilized to fight forest fires, particularly in the center and the south, while the whole territory is on alert due to high temperatures. .
In Spain, several provinces of Andalusia (south), Castilla-La Mancha (center) and Extremadura (west) have been placed on orange alert, with temperatures reaching 43°C on Monday, according to the National Meteorological Agency. (Aemet).
The high point of this third heat wave of the summer, which concerns the whole of the Iberian Peninsula and should last until Thursday, is expected on Wednesday.
The Aemet has issued a red alert notice (synonymous with extreme danger) for Wednesday in the Madrid region, where temperatures could reach 42 to 43 degrees, and in the Andalusian province of Jaen (south), where the Aemet predicts 44 degrees.
“Across most of the peninsula, orange alert corresponding to a significant risk”, indicated Aemet on twitter (renamed X) for this day of Wednesday, forecasting that the temperatures would be in the range from 38 to 42 degrees.
This new heat wave comes on the heels of an intense weekend for Spanish firefighters, who fought fires on three fronts.
In Catalonia (north-east), on the Mediterranean coast, on the border with France, Catalan firefighters announced Monday morning that they had “controlled” a fire which broke out on Friday and in which nearly 600 hectares burned.
The other two fires, now under control, took place in Andalusia: one affected some 450 hectares in the province of Huelva on Saturday and Sunday, the other, which broke out less than ten kilometers from the city of Cadiz on Sunday afternoon, ignited a pine forest adjoining the city of Puerto Real, resulting in a temporary closure of the highway leading to Cadiz.
Catalonia and Andalusia are the two regions of Spain most affected by the drought.
More than 70,000 hectares have burned in Spain since the start of the year, a record still far from the record of 2022, with more than 300,000 hectares destroyed, according to the European forest fire information system (Effis).
On the other side of the border, a thousand Portuguese firefighters were deployed early Monday afternoon to fight fires in the vicinity of Ourem (center) and Odemira (south), supported by twelve air resources, according to the National Civil Protection Authority.
In Odemira, near the southwestern coast of the country, a forest fire, which forced temporary evacuations on Sunday, continued to progress, fanned by the wind, according to the commander of civil protection, José Ribeiro.
This fire, which broke out on Saturday, caused nine minor injuries among firefighters.
With temperatures expected to exceed 40 degrees in several central and southern regions, Portugal is also on alert due to a “very high or maximum fire risk throughout the territory”.
Experts believe that the multiplication of these heat waves, as well as their increasing duration and intensity, are a consequence of climate change.
07/08/2023 18:19:02 – Madrid (AFP) – © 2023 AFP