Europe's Wildfires May Still Be Burning When Winter Arrives

Officials warn fires that have already consumed more than 170,000 hectares of Spanish forest could persist into November, as a new heatwave approaches France and Spain.

Wildfires are active across France and Spain, with firefighters battling blazes for another consecutive day.
Provisional data puts the area burned in Spain alone at more than 170,000 hectares.
A second heatwave is forecast to arrive this week, threatening to sustain or expand existing fires.
Officials have warned publicly that some fires may not be extinguished until November.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have both been drawn into crisis response.

Firefighters in France and Spain began another day Monday battling wildfires that officials say may not be fully extinguished until November. Provisional data reported July 27 shows more than 170,000 hectares of forest burned in Spain. A new heatwave is forecast to arrive later this week, adding fuel to fires already beyond routine seasonal scale.

French President Emmanuel Macron convened a crisis meeting. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was also engaged in emergency response. The region around Castillon was among the areas under active threat.

Officials offered November as a working horizon. That is not a prediction of control by November. It is a prediction that November is when conditions may finally stop being favorable to burning. The fires are not expected to be fought to a conclusion before then.

One hundred seventy thousand hectares is a number. A continent slowly losing its tree cover to a season that no longer ends on schedule is something that does not fit neatly into wire-service format. The brief is filed anyway.

All views remain equally meaningless.