Portugal: 94,000 hectares have already burned in 2022
Environment — di Maurizio Bongioanni
Since the start of the year, an area nine times the size of Lisbon has already gone up in flames in Portugal. And a third heatwave is on its way.
Portugal: 94,000 hectares have already burned in 2022
Since the start of the year, an area nine times the size of Lisbon has already gone up in flames in Portugal. And a third heatwave is on its way.
- A third exceptional heatwave is on its way to Portugal.
- The country is already grappling with the worst fires since 2017.
- 2022 risks being the most dramatic year on record: from January to today, 94,000 hectares of land have already burned.
Extreme weather events are showing no mercy on Portugal, which is about to be hit by a third exceptional heatwave. The Portuguese had hoped that falling temperatures would help bring the still-burning fires under control, but now the drought — and above all temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees once again — could intensify the flames.
Portugal is battling new fires
Having managed to bring under control a fire that destroyed nearly 30,000 hectares of woodland in the Serra da Estrela national park — in the heart of Portugal, declared a Unesco World Heritage Site and home to several species of wild animals — firefighters are now tackling a new blaze some 200 kilometres further north, in Vila Real.
Two Canadair aircraft sent by Greece, under a European civil protection support mechanism, are helping firefighters operating in the mountainous and hard-to-reach area. Meanwhile, the government and local authorities have restricted access to forests, banned all forms of fireworks displays and stepped up monitoring services.
A video recorded by a firefighter showed a fire tornado developing in northeast Portugal at one of the main wildfires still raging in the Iberian country.
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Today's top stories: trib.al/Rx0iR33
An area nine times the size of Lisbon has gone up in flames
The new heatwave arrives in a country that has already experienced its hottest July in a century. The country's Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests states that, since the beginning of the year, more than 94,000 hectares of land have been devastated by the worst wildfires recorded in Portugal since 2017 — the equivalent of an area nine times the size of Lisbon.
The president of the Portuguese Council of Ministers, Marina Vieira da Silva, after meeting the mayors of the affected municipalities, announced that the central government will declare a state of natural disaster to allow the release of rapid aid. Meanwhile, the scientific community is unanimous in stating that ongoing climate change is increasing the frequency of such weather events: heatwaves, droughts and more wildfires. A truly intense end of summer for the Iberian Peninsula.