a daily “forest weather” to improve prevention

A first forest weather forecast will be published at midday on Friday June 2 on the Météo France website and, thereafter, daily around 5 p.m. until the end of September. It is very concretely a map of the departments of France, with four colors (red, orange, yellow and green), which correspond to four fire spread danger levels: high and very high for red and orange, moderate and low for yellow and green.

This sensitivity of forests to fires is established by Météo France by crossing several parameters: rain, air humidity, temperature, wind strength, but also the state of dryness of the soil and vegetation because the Leaf water content is a key element in the spread of fire. The objective of this forest weather forecast is to raise people’s awareness of the risks, because nine out of ten fire outbreaks are of human origin and often linked to carelessness. These departures of fires of accidental origin can, for example, start from work in a garden, from a badly extinguished cigarette butt, or of a barbecue. 80% of fire outbreaks start within 50 meters of homes. VShe accidental risk is all the greater as there has been an increase in the number of residential constructions at the edge of forest areas over the last few decades.

The impact of climate change

These figures therefore show the importance of prevention, especially in a context of global warming which increases the risk of fire both in time (the forest fire season is no longer limited to summer) and geographically. . Last year, 90 departures were affected by massive fires, almost all of France. 72,000 hectares of vegetation burned last year. This is five times more than the average of the previous ten years.

You have to limit the damage once the fire is gone. The pillar of French strategy is the rapid attack on incipient fires. In times of high risk, the goal is to attack a fire within ten minutes of detection. Por this summer 2023, the government has already announced increased resources: nine additional planes and helicopters and 500 firefighters.