Many forest fires in Spain and Portugal

Smoke on the weather radar
Many forest fires in Spain and Portugal

A forest fire rages at the edge of a coniferous forest. Flames and thick smoke rise between the trees. In the foreground, burnt grass and bushes, in the background, smoke hangs over the landscape.

Due to the ongoing dry and hot weather, even a small spark or a discarded cigarette butt is enough to cause a fire.

There are currently a large number of forest fires raging on the Iberian Peninsula. The smoke from the fires has spread into the atmosphere in many areas of Western Europe.

The sky is quite cloudy in parts, especially from the western Mediterranean across France and England to Ireland.

Following Spain, Portugal has now also requested assistance from other EU countries. Among other things, several firefighting aircraft from Sweden and the Netherlands and an aid convoy from Germany are now on their way south.

According to official figures, around 140,000 hectares of vegetation have been destroyed in Portugal since the beginning of the year. In Spain, the figure is almost 160,000 hectares. This makes it one of the worst years for fires in recent decades.

Annika Jacob

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