Fickle Winds

A wildfire in Aragon has burned nearly 14,000 hectares since Wednesday. That is 34,600 acres. The wind is "absolutely crazy," according to a senior regional official. The wind changes direction. The fire comes back to life. The firefighters put out one front and another one rekindles behind them.[1]

More than 400 firefighters with army reinforcements. A handful of villages evacuated. The yellow heat warning for Aragon on Saturday, temperatures up to 36C. In Guadalajara, a second fire entered the Sierra Norte natural park, a protected area home to threatened eagles, wolves, and butterflies. Eleven villages evacuated there. Another 2,000 hectares gone.[1]

Last week, a fire in Andalusia killed 13 people. Seven Britons, one American, five others. It destroyed 7,000 hectares. That fire is out. This one is not.[1]

Not a season

Spain lost nearly 400,000 hectares to wildfires last year, the highest figure recorded by the European Forest Fire Information System.[2] That is not a bad year. That is a new baseline. When the record keeps breaking, the record is not the outlier. The record is the trend.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is increasing the length, intensity, and frequency of extreme heat. Extreme heat creates favorable conditions for wildfires. Favorable conditions means more fires, larger fires, fires that move faster and burn hotter and resist the firefighters sent to stop them. The wind in Aragon is "crazy" because the climate is changing. The wind has always changed direction. The difference now is that the vegetation is drier, the air is hotter, and the fire that comes back to life finds more fuel than it would have a decade ago.[1]

The math

14,000 hectares in Aragon. 2,000 in Guadalajara. 7,000 in Andalusia last week. 400,000 last year. These are numbers that fit in a sentence but do not fit in the mind. A hectare is roughly the size of a football pitch. 14,000 football pitches. 400,000 football pitches. The scale outpaces the imagination. The numbers become abstractions and the abstractions become routine and the routine becomes the new normal and the new normal becomes the thing we stop talking about.

Meanwhile in Luxembourg, Saturday is pleasant. Blue skies, a mix of clouds, 27C in the afternoon. The next few days slightly cooler. The weather here is fine. The weather two hours south by plane is not fine. The distance between "fine" and "catastrophic" is shrinking.[3]

The Spanish king called the regional leader of Aragon to ask about the fire and send encouragement to the firefighting team. Encouragement. The king sent encouragement. Four hundred firefighters are on the ground and the king sent encouragement. I am sure it was appreciated. I am sure it was insufficient.