Rescue services were fighting several fires in Spain on Thursday, June 16, a task complicated by the unusual heat wave that the Iberian Peninsula has been facing for six days, with temperatures in some places exceeding forty degrees.
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The most serious fire broke out near Baldomar, in the province of Lleida, in Catalonia, where the fire has already destroyed 940 hectares of forest, according to the latest figures from the regional government.
In Lérida, temperatures approaching 40°C were recorded on Thursday, according to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet).
This fire has "
the potential
" to spread to 20,000 hectares, said the regional government.
At this point, no one has been evacuated in this area, but authorities have confined some residential areas as a precaution.
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Also in Catalonia, two other fires were active on Thursday afternoon, in Solsonés, in the same province of Lérida, and in Tierra Alta (province of Tarragona), with in both cases nearly 300 hectares burned, according to the government. .
“
We are entering the most complicated hours with regard to the evolution of these three great fires
,” the head of the Interior portfolio within the Catalan executive, Joan Ignasi Elena García, told the press.
The milestone of 40 degrees crossed
Several other smaller fires were underway on Thursday, notably in the Sierra de la Culebra, near Zamora (Castile and León, center).
In Navarre (north), firefighters managed to control two forest fires overnight, the regional emergency services said Thursday morning.
The 40 degree mark was once again crossed in the south of the country, especially in Granada (40.6ºC) and Andújar (40.4ºC), according to the agency.
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This heat wave, unusual at this stage of the year in Spain, has resulted since last weekend in an explosion of temperatures throughout the country, with peaks of up to 43 degrees.
According to Aemet, it should last until Saturday.
Spain, which this year experienced its hottest May since the beginning of the century, according to the meteorological agency, has already gone through four episodes of extreme temperatures in the last ten months.
The multiplication of heat waves, particularly in Europe, is a direct consequence of global warming, explain the scientists, with greenhouse gas emissions increasing both the intensity, duration and frequency of these phenomena.
