Forest fires in Turkey, Greece, California: Permanent state of Emergency

California wildfires: “Flee for Your Lives” (Tagesschau.de, August 6, 2021)

Wildfires out of control: explosions north of Athens-fires approaching residential areas (DER SPIEGEL, August 6, 2021)

Turkey: More villages evacuated due to forest fires (Zeit.de, 1 August 2021)

While in Germany in July heavy rain and flooding devastated entire villages in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, destroying lives and houses, the next extreme weather disasters were already approaching elsewhere. The consequences are now being felt and making headlines around the world. In Southeast Europe, in Greece and Turkey, as well as in the west of the USA, fierce fires are raging and are becoming a danger for entire regions.

In Greece the situation is currently particularly close to Athens. Strong westerly winds fanned numerous fires in the night on Friday, in the north of Athens several villages were already evacuated, there were detonations. Within 24 hours, there were around 90 new forest fires in Greece, the fire service reported. Several people came to hospitals with respiratory problems.

neighbouring Turkey fight on Friday for the tenth day in a row against the heaviest forest fires in years. The southern and western Turkish coastal regions of Antalya, Marmaris, Bodrum and Milas are particularly affected. In Milas, the flames engulfed several neighborhoods that had been evacuated earlier that night. At least eight people have already died in Turkey in connection with the fires. Criticism of the government is growing.

Numerous fires are also raging in the USA. In northern California the Dixi fire has been keeping people in suspense for weeks. It destroyed the center of the historic town of Greenville on Thursday night. In total, the fire has so far burned down an area of about 1400 square kilometers. This corresponds to more than half the area of Saarland and about twice the area of Hamburg. There have been no deaths here so far.

A lot of precipitation in Central Europe, drought in the southeast

The so different summers with floods in Central Europe and fires in the southeast can be explained by very different and extreme weather conditions. “In July 2021, there was a fairly large contrast in Europe between wet and dry conditions across the continent,” summarizes the situation, the European Copernicus Earth observation program.

In western parts of Central Europe, rainfall was well above average. Parts of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands experienced devastating floods. In the eastern part of the continent, on the other hand, mostly dry conditions prevailed, the data show. This provided ” favourable environmental conditions for extensive forest fires.”At the end of the month, there was also a particularly strong heat wave in southeastern Europe – where Greece and Turkey are also located.

Although warm weather does not automatically lead to forest fires, as long as it is humid at the same time. However, in the absence of precipitation, high temperatures favor the evaporation of moisture still stored in the soil. The soil dries out more easily. On parched soils and in dry vegetation, a flash of lightning, a carelessly discarded cigarette or a spark otherwise triggered are enough to set entire areas on fire in a short time.

Extreme drought in the western United States

Such conditions currently also provide food for fires in the United States. “For the second year in a row, the drought has dried up large parts of the United States from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast,” the US space agency Nasa wrote in early June. Experts warned at the time of extreme drought in the west of the country and possibly associated serious fires. Unfortunately, they were right.

The fire season in the western United States started very early this year. “The drought and intermittent heat have encouraged the emergence and spread of large wildfires,” the US Weather and Ocean Agency NOAA and the Environment Agency (NCEI) wrote in a report dated August 5. In 2021, there were almost 17,000 large fires in the West region, which burned more than 10,100 square kilometers of land. This corresponds to about four times the area of the Saarland.

The region includes the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. Around 99 percent of the country’s land area and more than 60 million people are currently affected by some form of drought. On 64 percent of the area there is even extreme or exceptionally severe drought-the two highest levels of classification.