Firefighters in southwest France are fighting against a mega-fire four times the size of Paris.
Meanwhile, temperatures are expected to climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
The heat wave and forecast winds could hamper progress against the blaze that has forced 220,000 people from their homes, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux said.
While authorities said the situation was calm overnight, the onset of heat-wave temperatures and winds heightened the risk of flames flaring again.
In neighboring Spain, people are bracing for the fourth heat wave of the summer, .
Across France and Spain, roughly 330,000 people have been driven from homes and vacation sites by huge wildfires.
Here’s the latest:
How to keep the air inside your home clean during wildfires
Wildfire smoke can settle over cities for days 鈥� like the recent blanket over parts of the U.S. from burning fires in Canada, which has for
Health officials advise people to stay indoors 鈥� and to take steps to keep the air in your home clean:
Survivors face an uncertain future
For the hundreds of thousands of evacuees, the question is the same: What will they find when they鈥檙e finally allowed to go home, or to what鈥檚 left of it?
With no word on when she鈥檒l be able to return home, Elvira Men茅ndez will spend her third night on Sunday at the makeshift shelter set up in a sports complex in Villaviciosa de Od贸n, a 40-minute drive from the home she was forced to leave as the blaze neared.
On Friday afternoon, two major fires near Madrid merged into a single blaze. It later combined with another that was already burning in 脕vila, north of the capital. This forced the government to declare a national fire emergency for the first time. Since then, the flames have also spread to Toledo, a province southwest. In all, the flames have scorched 77,000 hectares in the central part of the country alone.
Men茅ndez鈥檚 anguish was shared by Roc铆o Dom铆nguez, who fled her house with only the clothes on her back. 鈥淎ll the clothes, all the memories, everything, everything, everything,鈥� were left behind, she told The Associated Press.
French wildfire created a monster cloud, unleashing lightning that ignited more fires
France鈥檚 wildfire grew so powerful that its smoke column became a thunderstorm, generating lightning that struck the ground and ignited new fires beyond the original blaze, French officials said.
Put another way, that means the inferno was no longer simply being propelled by the weather. It was making its own. The thundercloud also produced violent, erratic winds capable of driving the flames in new directions.
The phenomenon, called a pyrocumulonimbus, or pyroCb, is rare in Europe and more commonly documented in North America and Australia, where it occurs only over some of the most extreme fires. France鈥檚 national firefighters federation said it had never before recorded one in the country.
At about 6:20 p.m. Friday, two days after the fire began, the departmental fire and rescue service said it had generated a pyrocumulonimbus. The cloud weakened overnight as humidity rose, then formed several times again.
Repeatedly, heat and smoke have surged upward into a vast black thundercloud, electrified and lit from within.
A 2:47 a.m. alert, a rabbit and 220,000 evacuees as France鈥檚 wildfire rages on
Europe is experiencing one of its biggest evacuations since World War II. Among the more than 220,000 people told to flee are Morgane Bonichot, her 9-year-old daughter and their pets.
Her daughter was in the blaze鈥檚 epicenter when it ignited last week, staying with an uncle in the midst of the pine forests, scrub and farmland being consumed by an inferno so virulent that it has morphed at times into a , spitting lightning bolts that have sparked yet more flames.
Among the fire鈥檚 first evacuees, the daughter came home Friday. But with the flames spreading closer to her mother鈥檚 house west of Bordeaux, the daughter began preparing to flee again.
All told, regional authorities have emptied two dozen towns and villages, some ravaged by fire. Others between the blaze and Bordeaux, including Saint-Jean-d鈥橧llac, were evacuated as a precaution by government officials who say their priority is making sure that no lives are lost.
Wildfires are more extreme in Europe and North America, but global burning is oddly decreasing
As wildfires in Europe and North America grow more extreme, key worldwide burning statistics are at a record low largely because Africa and Asia are controlling fire more.
Experts say these seemingly opposite trends are happening at the same time because of what humanity is doing to the planet.
Spain鈥檚 wildfire is at more than 193 square miles (500 square kilometers), while have burned just a bit under 2025鈥檚 all-time high. In and the this summer, land burned by wildfires is at least 25% higher than the 10-year average and more than double what it was decades ago, according to centers.
And yet the world went into July this year with record low global emissions from burning fires, a key measure of their prevalence, the European climate center Copernicus reported. That is because fires in Africa and Asia are way down due to changing agricultural practices, fire management and where people are moving to, said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist at Copernicus.
A heat wave threatens to reignite France鈥檚 mega-fire near Bordeaux
Fire crews battled a mega-fire four times the size of Paris in southwest France while facing tinderbox temperatures forecast to climb above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday.
The heat wave and forecast winds could hamper progress against the blaze that has forced from their homes, authorities for the Gironde region around Bordeaux said.
In a Wednesday morning update on the huge firefighting effort, Gironde authorities said the situation overnight had been 鈥渃alm鈥� and that the blaze hadn鈥檛 spread 鈥� although it鈥檚 still not contained a week after it started.
The onset of heat-wave temperatures and winds heightened the risk of flames flaring again.
On Tuesday, Gironde authorities ordered 4,000 more people , widening what may be France鈥檚 largest peacetime evacuation.
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