This news is expensive and can not be published
This news is expensive and can not be published
29 July 2017
published by https://www.thelocal.es
Spain – After France and Portugal, Spain was battling a blaze on Saturday that has ravaged bone dry pine forests and is still not under control despite the mobilisation of 20 water-dropping planes and helicopters.
Some 300 people were evacuated from villages and camp sites as the fire in Yeste in southeastern Spain burnt more than 1,000 hectares (nearly 4 square miles) in two days, Ana Cuevas, a spokeswoman for the regional government of Castilla-La Mancha, told AFP.
She added that the blaze had still not come under control after firefighters worked all night to try and stop its advance.
The fire, which started on Thursday morning, comes as parts of southern Europe experience a scorching summer, leaving forests and bushland highly vulnerable to blazes.
Neighbouring France battled huge fires near beaches popular with tourists on the Cote d’Azur, forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people.
These came under control on Thursday although authorities remain on high alert.
In Portugal, meanwhile, fires have raged across large areas of tinder-dry forest, cutting off roads in the centre of the country and forcing thousands to flee just a month after blazes that left more than 60 people dead.
An international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.
Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.
“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCpAn international team of climate researchers from the US, South Korea and the UK has developed a new wildfire and drought prediction model for southwestern North America. Extending far beyond the current seasonal forecast, this study published in the journal Scientific Reports could benefit the economies with a variety of applications in agriculture, water management and forestry.
Over the past 15 years, California and neighboring regions have experienced heighteneddrought conditions and an increase inwildfire numbers with considerable impacts on human livelihoods, agriculture, and terrestrial ecosystems. This new research shows that in addition to a discernible contribution from natural forcings and human-induced global warming, the large-scale difference between Atlantic and Pacific ocean temperatures plays a fundamental role in causing droughts, and enhancing wildfire risks.
“Our results document that a combination of processes is at work. Through an ensemble modeling approach, we were able to show that without anthropogenic effects, the droughts in the southwestern United States would have been less severe,” says co-author Axel Timmermann, Director of the newly founded IBS Center for Climate Physics, within the Institute for Basics Science (IBS), and Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University in South Korea. “By prescribing the effects of man-made climate change and observed global ocean temperatures, our model can reproduce the observed shifts in weather patterns and wildfire occurrences.”
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-07-atlanticpacific-ocean-temperature-difference-fuels.html#jCp
