Record high temperatures and devastating wildfires in Europe
- June 23, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Record high temperatures and devastating wildfires in Europe
Subject : Environment
Section: Climate Change
Context:
- Spain, Germany, and Greece have been facing the worst of Europe’s extraordinary heat wave that has seen temperatures rising to record highs even before the official start of the summer and wildfires have ravaged all three countries.
How do forests catch fire?
- A wildfire is a major fire that breaks out unpredictably in combustible environments such as dry forests or bush, and often burns uncontrollably over a large area and length of time.
- A forest fire can be triggered by natural factors such as prolonged hot, dry weather or lightning strikes, or human carelessness.
- Wildfires require a “fire triangle” of fuel, oxygen, and heat in order to grow and spread, and can be extinguished when at least one of the three elements is removed.
- One of the reasons wildfires cause immense destruction is the speed of their spread, which depends on the weather, winds, fuel, and topography.
- High temperatures and droughts have contributed to devastating wildfires in California, Australia, Brazil, and southern Europe. Slopes, especially those that face the sun and retain more heat, are more prone to catching fire.
Forest fires in Europe:
- According to The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), 2021 was the second worst fire season for Europe since the EFFIS started keeping records of wildfires in 2000.
- 2018 saw record fires in Europe, especially in the central and northern regions of the continent.
- Droughts and heatwaves in 2017 and 2018 drove the wildfires.
Are the fires a result of climate change?
- Climate change is estimated to have made heat waves 5 to 10 times worse than they were about a century ago.
- Global warming, a man-made phenomenon, is leading to extreme weather events such as hotter temperatures, droughts, famines, rain, and floods, which disrupt natural weather cycles.
- Europe’s earliest heatwave this year sent the mercury past 40 degrees Celsius, temperatures that are expected only in July or August.
- May 2022 marked the highest level of carbon dioxide recorded in the Earth’s atmosphere, being about 420 ppm (parts per million), levels that haven’t been seen in 4 million years.
- Carbon dioxide traps heat, creating conditions for heatwaves, droughts, and fires.
- The wildfires in Greece, Spain and Germany have all been linked to hotter temperatures and low humidity caused by climate change.