Fires in Spain

2005

Fires inSpain

26 July 2005

GFMC summary:

The provincial government of Valencia decreased the emergency level for fire risk alert for the interior of Castellón, the interior and south of the province of Valencia and the north of Alicante on level 2 (still high fire danger) and level 1 (low to medium fire danger) for the coastal parts of the province and the south of Alicante. Short and heavy rainfall and thunderstorms with decreasing temperatures are expected in the afternoon for the coastal region.

A lightning strike caused a fire in the Natural Park Sierra de Irta, province of Castellón.

See also following article:

Reducing forest fires by training local communities (www.fao.org, 25 July 2005)
Armer les communautés locales contre les feux de forêt (French version)

Forest fires destroy up to 700 000 ha every year in the Mediterranean region.
Le feu détruit chaque année jusqu’à 700 000 ha de forêt en Méditerranée

See also:

Heatwave in Northern Africa and Southern Europe (source: Earth Observatory)

Latest satellite scenes showing fires and fire affected areas in Central Spain:

On 25 July 2005, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite captured a view of the forest fires (marked in red) that were burning at several locations in drought struck Spain.

AQUA
24 July 2005
13:05 hrs UTC
(Image courtesy MODIS)

True colour: Bands 1-4-3

False Colour: Bands 7-2-1

The links provide a 500mresolution for both scenes

The left image is a photo-like image in naturalcolours, while the right image has been enhanced by including MODISobservations of infrared light. In the false colour scene, vegetation is brightgreen, clouds are light blue, and the burned area is magenta. Bright pinkindicates areas that were actively flaming at the time.

For more detailed information see:

Satellite Evaluation of the forest fires in Guadalajara, Spain, July 2005 (by Laboratorio de Teledetección CIFOR INIA Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia) (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI):

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)on NASAs Aqua satellitealso enhanced the previous image from the 24 July 2005 by including theNormalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) which is strongly correlated tosurface temperatures and surface moisture status.

Click on scene for a 2km resolution

ECPC Fire Weather Forecast:

The GFMC displays selected and daily updated Experimental ClimatePrediction Center (ECPC) Fire Weather Forecasts for Europe. Theseexamples allow a quicklook and provide daily and weekly total forecasts. Forbackground information refer to the ECPCproducts description page.

FWI forecast for the next week

Precipitation amount forecast for the next week

Surface temperatures forecast for the next week

Relative humidity forecast for the next week

(Source: ECPCFire Weather Index Forecast)

Theforecast indicates no extreme fire danger for Central Spain and the Pre-Pyrenees. Thecurrent fire danger, however, is due to unusually high day temperatures, lowprecipitation and low relative humidity

Satellite-derived vegetation health map:

The general stress situation is higher this year as comparedto 2004.
(Source: NOAA/NESDISCurrent Vegetation Health Image Maps)

For moredetails on fires in Spain:

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin