The gigantic wildfire ravaging southwest France has created an extremely dangerous “pyrocumulonimbus” — a phenomenon never seen in the country — a spokesman for the country’s National Firefighters Federation of France (FNSPF) told Agence France Press.
Unprecedented in Europe
According to France 24, such a formation, also called a “cumulonimbus flammagenitus cloud, can be seen during volcanic eruptions — or, as in this case, when a wildfire roasts the air near the ground, causing it to rise quickly.”
France 24 reported that “hitherto, they have only really been seen in wildfire-prone Australia and North America. NASA calls them the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds.”
FNSPF spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Eric Brocardi said:
“The rise in ground temperature at the heart of the blaze is so extreme that the intense heat surges upward in a column, meeting cooler air masses at the top. This contact creates a pyrocumulonimbus — or fire cloud — though unfortunately one devoid of moisture. This smoke cloud generates its own weather system, causing anything in its path to spontaneously combust.
“Lightning forms within the cloud, striking the embers on the ground and further fuelling the fire … It produces a low, rumbling sound.
“While this type of fire occurs regularly in Canada and Australia, it is unprecedented in France.”
The rearguard firefighting action on the ground has become increasingly desperate, as Brocardi continued:
“We have reached a point of ‘operational impossibility’ that requires us to accept the need for strategic retreat — to understand and acknowledge a natural force beyond our control.
“It calls for … knowing what can be done and, above all, what cannot. The situation on the ground is defensive rather than offensive; it is a war-like scenario where we are under constant bombardment and must get everyone to safety.”
Over 300,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes as wildfires continue to rage across Spain and France, reported The Independent newspaper.
At least one man has been killed in Spain and dozens of others have been injured including at least 68 firefighters in France.
Government officials from both countries have commented on the historic nature of the blaze, with Madrid’s regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso describing it as “the worst fire in the history of the region”.
Comment from Russell
James Banasik, Russell’s Head of Connected Risk said:
“These fires are real beasts of nature, which are striking at the heart of two of the biggest cities in Europe, in Bordeaux and Madrid. These are both highly connected global cities that are home to millions of families and workers employed by large corporations, banks, insurance companies, manufacturers and other inter-dependent industries. This is no longer a natural catastrophe event confined – in the minds of Europeans at least – to a desolate Australian outback with implications for wallabies and kangaroos.
“This is now a European and North American problem. Curious things are happening to the weather that just can’t simply be explained by the old models and, possibly, the old thinking. There are reports of other areas impacted by wildfires include parts of Scotland where a major incident was declared following a blaze in Cairngorms National Park, with smoke drifting as far as Aberdeen nearly 150 miles away.
“Meanwhile, ocean anomalies continue to play a very important role in the global weather system. The Atlantic temperature anomalies are known to have direct impacts on the hurricane season and thus on the U.S. But the influence of large Pacific anomalies like the El Niño also extends far into the Winter and Spring seasons across the planet. While a strong, deep low-pressure anomaly is created over the El Niño, a stable high-pressure region sits over the Atlantic Niña.
“In simple terms, the weather globally is creating conditions for a subdued Atlantic hurricanes season but for extremely high temperatures on the ground in western Europe. What is of most concern is that the pattern does not look like changing any time soon and with August – on average – the warmest month of the year across Europe, we need to remain very vigilant for wildfire conditions to continue.
