Video: Hundreds of firefighters fight 2nd-day blaze in northwestern Turkiye
Firefighter teams in trucks, helicopters and planes in northwestern Turkiye battled growing wildfires for a second day. Several villages were evacuated, and some residents were sent to the hospital.
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Al Jazeera
19 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
What can we expect as fire season ramps up in California?
As the United States enters its hottest months of the year, fire officials and scientists say they are preparing for wildfire activity to ramp up. While the US fire season typically runs from late spring until early autumn, experts say the most intense fires tend to erupt in months like July and August, when temperatures are high and vegetation is dried out. California has become emblematic of the scope and intensity of those wildfires. The western state tallied 8,110 blazes in 2024 alone — more than any other part of the country. Just last week, the insurance company Gallagher Re found that two blazes this year in the Los Angeles area — the Eaton and Palisades fires — were responsible for nearly $40bn in insured losses alone. An estimated 30 people died in those fires. That toll has put California in the crosshairs of a nationwide debate about how best to deal with wildfires and what the state and federal roles should be. Earlier this month, on the six-month anniversary of the deadly infernos, US Senator Alex Padilla called on the federal government to invest more in fire preparedness, rather than scale back, as President Donald Trump has suggested he may do. 'We're entering the next peak fire season. Fire season is year-round in California, but peak fire season is just beginning,' Padilla said. He pointed out that the Los Angeles conflagrations sparked in the relatively mild month of January: 'These fires took place in wintertime, not in the hot dry months of summer.' That, experts say, is an indication of the potential scale of California's wildfires, even under less-than-ideal circumstances. Potential for a 'fairly severe' season Scientists say that California's wildfires have been fairly subdued so far this year, but they are expected to pick up as summer progresses into August, especially in parts of the state that have struggled with drought in recent months. 'We've had a number of small-to-medium-sized fires, but nothing too startling so far,' Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), told Al Jazeera in a recent phone call. 'But that's kind of where we'd expect to be at this point in the season. And we've seen some factors that point to what could be a fairly severe fire season as we enter the drier months.' Scientists are quick to stress that wildfire seasons can be affected by a variety of factors and are difficult to predict. Events associated with wildfire, such as periods of high winds, extreme heat or lightning storms, are themselves mercurial. Acts of human error or negligence, like a downed power line or a failure to properly extinguish a campfire, can also set a landscape ablaze. Once a burn starts, elements like wind strength and firefighter access can make the difference between a fire that is quickly snuffed out and one that grows larger and more intense. 'It's really hard to come up with a single rationale for why some seasons are so much more intense than others,' said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science and forest policy at the University of California, Berkeley. The fire seasons of 2020 and 2021 in California, for example, saw record-breaking fires that spread across enormous portions of land. The next several years were, by comparison, fairly tame, although scientists say that factors such as climate change have contributed to fire seasons that see higher-than-average levels of activity. But there are some indicators that scientists and fire officials look to as clues, such as the prevalence of drought and the level of moisture present in soil and plant life. While many catalysts can spark a fire, how quickly it spreads and how unstoppable it becomes is largely a matter of fuel, in the form of thick, dry vegetation. Stephens says that southern California's chaparral landscape — typified by low-lying shrubs like sage — is especially prone to fire, and it has had a 'very dry' year. The US Drought Monitor says that about 23 percent of the state is currently experiencing conditions ranging from severe to exceptional drought, with many of those areas concentrated in southern California. California's largest fire of the year thus far, the Madre Fire, took place in San Luis Obispo County in central California and reached about 80,000 acres (32,400 hectares), according to the state agency Cal Fire. That blaze is more than 95 percent contained, the term fire officials use to reference the portion of a fire effectively surrounded by protective lines built to stop it from spreading. Shifting policies for emergency management Political changes are also looming over this year's fire season, as cuts to weather forecasting and emergency services under the Trump administration spark concern. Scientists argue that such services play an essential role in trying to understand each fire season. 'We rely a lot on modelled forecasts for different weather events, and fire weather is certainly an example of that,' said Moritz. 'If these services take a hit, we're all at risk of worse outcomes.' Since returning to office for a second term, Trump has led an effort to downscale the federal government, including by reducing its emergency services and scientific research. Earlier this year, for instance, the National Weather Service (NWS) lost nearly 600 workers as part of the Trump-led employee reduction. The president has since faced criticism after a series of floods in the state of Texas killed nearly 135 people: Democratic lawmakers have blamed staffing cuts for hindering forecasting and emergency response efforts. The administration has also sought to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which oversees the federal response to disaster recovery. Trump had proposed redistributing FEMA's responsibilities to state and local governments. In the meantime, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly implemented a policy in June that required any FEMA expenses over $100,000 to be approved by her personally. That, critics say, has led to a slowdown in services. Just last Monday, CNN broke the news that Ken Pagurek, the head of FEMA's search and rescue operations for urban areas, resigned in frustration over the bureaucratic hurdles. Trump himself has threatened to withhold disaster aid from states like California if they do not align with his policies on immigration and other issues. He and his allies have blamed Democrats for the Los Angeles wildfires. 'This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our Country. They just can't put out the fires. What's wrong with them?' Trump wrote in January. Preventing out-of-control wildfires California, however, has sought to implement its own measures to address the challenges that come with longer and more intense fire seasons. Those tactics include a greater emphasis on fuel reduction efforts, including through prescribed burns, in which fire is intentionally introduced to a landscape under controlled circumstances to help thin excess vegetation. 'Prescribed burns are something we've definitely encouraged. We're doing a lot more of them than we used to,' said Jesse Torres, a spokesperson with Cal Fire. He says that such efforts typically take place in late spring, after periods of rainfall when wetter conditions reduce the risk of a prescribed burn spreading out of control. Fire scientists, however, say that the scale of those efforts has yet to reach the levels needed to have a serious impact on the state's fire activity. While Cal Fire has a yearly goal of treating 500,000 acres (202,300 hectares) of land through fuel reduction efforts, Cal Fire says it has only covered about 156,000 acres (63,100 hectares) during the current fiscal year, although it expects that figure to increase. 'There is still a lack of sufficient burning and thinning efforts,' said Stephens. 'If forests were more resilient, the impact of these fires would be less extreme.'
Al Jazeera
16-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Video: Hundreds of firefighters fight 2nd-day blaze in northwestern Turkiye
Hundreds of firefighters fight 2nd-day blaze in northwestern Turkiye NewsFeed Firefighter teams in trucks, helicopters and planes in northwestern Turkiye battled growing wildfires for a second day. Several villages were evacuated, and some residents were sent to the hospital. Video Duration 02 minutes 28 seconds 02:28 Video Duration 02 minutes 47 seconds 02:47 Video Duration 01 minutes 18 seconds 01:18 Video Duration 03 minutes 11 seconds 03:11 Video Duration 00 minutes 32 seconds 00:32 Video Duration 01 minutes 06 seconds 01:06 Video Duration 01 minutes 36 seconds 01:36
Al Jazeera
16-07-2025
- Al Jazeera
Why is Europe facing record-breaking heatwaves?
Heatwaves in Europe have arrived unexpectedly early this year with two major spikes in temperatures already affecting millions of people and a third gripping parts of the continent. From late June to mid-July, temperatures soared as high as 46 degrees Celsius (114 degrees Fahrenheit) with some locations in Western Europe experiencing record-breaking heat. Wildfires in Greece have triggered evacuations while in France, emergency measures have closed schools and even the Eiffel Tower. In Italy, bans on outdoor labour have affected many workers. Spain's environment ministry said high temperatures have caused 1,180 deaths in the past two months, a sharp increase from the same period last year. According to a study, about 2,300 heat-related deaths were recorded in 12 European cities from June 23 to July 2. About 1,500 of those deaths were linked to climate change, according to the researchers at Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 'Climate change has made it significantly hotter than it would have been, which in turn makes it a lot more dangerous,' Dr Ben Clarke, a researcher at Imperial College London, said. Where have heatwaves occurred? The first heatwave Europe experienced peaked between June 17 and 22 and affected Western and Southern Europe. During the second heatwave, peaking between June 30 and July 2, temperatures exceeded 40C (104F) in several countries with some cities in Spain and Portugal reaching 46C (118F). What is causing the heatwaves? The persistent heat is being driven by a high-pressure system over Western Europe known as a heat dome. It acts like a lid that traps hot air under it. The pressure from the weather system pushes air down into a hot, dome-shaped mass and prevents milder weather systems from moving through. As a result, it creates prolonged periods of excessively high temperatures. The heat in turn prevents clouds from building up, reducing the chances of rain. This June was the warmest on record for Western Europe Due to the weather phenomenon, Western Europe saw its warmest June on record with an average temperature of 20.49C (68.88F), surpassing the previous record for the month from 2003 by 0.06C (0.11F), according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. On June 30, temperatures averaged 24.9C (76.8F) over Western Europe, setting a new daily temperature record for June. The same average temperature was recorded on July 1. That was one of the highest daily temperatures ever observed in Europe during this time of year. It was exceeded only during the heatwaves of 2003, 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Europe is the fastest warming continent and has warmed by 0.53C (0.95F) per decade since the mid-1990s, according to the ERA5 dataset from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Several factors are causing this effect in Europe, including shifts in atmospheric circulation, leading to more frequent and intense heatwaves. Additionally, reduced air pollution means that more solar radiation is reaching the Earth's surface and reducing cloud cover. Certain areas of Europe also extend into the Arctic, which is the fastest warming region on the planet. Countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal saw the hottest temperatures recorded since 1979 from the start of the first heatwave to the end of the second heatwave – June 17 to July 2. Heat-related deaths in Europe Heatwaves have been deadly for Europe. A report by Imperial's Grantham Institute published last week studied 12 European cities to measure changes in the intensity of heatwaves. From June 23 to July 2 it estimated there were 2,300 heat-related deaths, including 1,500 linked to climate change, which made the heatwaves more severe. Climate change was behind: 317 of the estimated excess heat deaths in Milan 286 in Barcelona 235 in Paris 171 in London 164 in Rome 108 in Madrid 96 in Athens 47 in Budapest 31 in Zagreb 21 in Frankfurt 21 in Lisbon six in Sassari, Italy The study found that the heatwaves were more deadly due to the early arrival of higher temperatures, which usually occur in late July and in August. People in Europe are not acclimatised to such high temperatures, especially the older population. More than 80 percent of the estimated excess deaths are expected in people older than 65. The world is getting hotter Last month was the third warmest June globally since 1850, according to average temperatures. June's average surface air temperature was 16.46C (61.62F) to 0.47C (0.84F) and higher than the 1991-2020 average for June, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service. Global temperatures remain unusually high, closely tracking 2024 – the hottest year on record, having averaged a surface air temperature of 15.1C (59.18F), which was more than 1.5C (2.7F) higher than pre-industrial levels, a threshold seen as crucial to avoid dangerous global warming. An article published last month in the Earth System Science Data journal also noted that human-induced warming has been increasing at a rate of 0.27C per decade from 2015 to 2024, which is the highest rate observed in the instrumental record.
