6,000 people evacuated overnight as new wildfire rages in France

The main A63 highway between Bordeaux and Bayonne “will be closed both ways,” the Girondeprefecture said Wednesday. “The fire is very virulent and has spread to the department of Landes.”

The flames have destroyed 16 houses but no injuries were reported, according to the press release.

“We are entering a difficult day with very high risks. The weather is extremely unfavorable at the moment,” authorities said.

French officials added that they are also fighting at least three other fires in the south of the country.

French Prime Minister ?lisabeth Borne will visit Gironde on Thursday along with Darmanin, Borne announced on social media.

Temperatures in this part of the country are expected to reach as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Thursday and Friday, according to a forecast published by the country’s meteorological service, M?t?o France on Wednesday.

The area affected is almost the same size as India, and greater than the three biggest US states — Alaska, Texas and California — combined.

Andnew satellite imagery from the EU’s climate monitoring agency Copernicus reveals a near cloudless view of western Europe as it experiences yet another extreme heat wave.

In the southern UK and Netherlands, the mercury has once more climbed above 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit) while France and Spain face punishing temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).

“This new heatwave is associated with a robust high-pressure figure causing cloudlessness over much of western Europe,” according to Copernicus.

“According to the national weather services, air temperatures between 9 and 14 August could again exceed 44?C (111.2 Fahrenheit) in Spain, 40?C (104 Fahrenheit) in France, 35?C (95 Fahrenheit) in the south of the United Kingdom and 30?C (86 Fahrenheit) in the Netherlands,” Copernicus said.

CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said: “Other than a few slightly cooler days in between, this heat wave is forecast to last for the next 10 days.”

High temperatures, low rainfall

The extreme temperatures Europe is experiencing are down to a persistent build of high pressure and strong sunshine, according to Liz Bentley, chief executive at the Royal Meteorological Society.

Western Europe particularly “has been struggling since the beginning of June,” she told CNN Wednesday.

“Then you combine that with the lack of rainfall — and for some parts of Europe there’s been below average rainfall now for 15 or 16 months — there’s been a very prolonged period of dry weather and so rivers and reservoirs have got down to very, very low levels.”

Bentley continued: “The recent heat waves have exacerbated the problem because it further evaporates any moisture from the ground, from the rivers, from the reservoirs. It’s left large swathes of Europe in drought conditions.”

These dry conditions and the continued sweltering temperatures have led to wildfires, which Bentley said are “not that uncommon” in Europe. But, she added, “the season started very early, and it has been much more persistent and more widespread than we would normally see.”

She added that the consequences of extreme heat events and drought are already being seen, for example in agriculture and farming communities.

“It just means that we’re going to see a severe drop in crop yields throughout the summer, and that then will have a knock on effect on food prices — not just across Europe but around the world as well. On the back of the problems that’s happening in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion — it’ll just exacerbate the whole problem around food prices.”

Bentley said the latest forecasting from the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology suggested the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon. Its analysis of projections indicate that over the next couple of months, temperatures are expected to stay above average, with problems exacerbated by below average rainfall