Fire Clouds and Europe’s Wildfires

Key facts

• Wildfires in France's Gironde region and central Spain have forced over 300,000 people to evacuate their homes.
• The Gironde fire consumed more than 420 square kilometres of forest and came within 15 kilometres of Bordeaux.
• The fire generated a pyrocumulonimbus (fire cloud), a storm cloud created by the fire's intense heat, which produced lightning and erratic winds.
• Pyrocumulonimbus clouds can reach altitudes of 10 to 15 kilometres and punch into the stratosphere.
• The phenomenon was previously documented mainly in Australia and North America; France recorded its first pyroCb during these fires.
• A fresh heatwave was forecast to arrive in France and Spain, with temperatures up to 42 degrees Celsius, threatening to worsen fire conditions.
• Scientists attribute the extreme fires to successive heatwaves, human activity, and the climate crisis, with Europe warming at twice the global average.