Spain is experiencing the last day of an extreme and unusually early heat wave. The emergency services continue, Saturday, June 18, to fight against fires in Spain. The most important of these forest fires forced the authorities to evacuate 14 villages, regrouping several hundred inhabitants, in the Sierra de la Culebra, a mountain range in the region of Castile and Leon, in the north-west of the country, near the border with Portugal. According to the regional authorities, some of them were able to return to their homes on Saturday morning, the flames having moved away from the homes concerned.
But the fire “stay active”underlined the government of Castile and Leon, referring to weather conditions “unfavorable“, with a dry wind and high temperatures. In total, almost “19,765 hectares burned” in this giant fire, he said.
Spanish firefighters also continued to fight other fires in Caudiel, in the Valencia region (southeast), or in Artesa de Segre, in Catalonia (northeast), where a fire underway since Wednesday has already ravaged 1,600 hectares of land.
Other fires, however, were under control, particularly in the Iruelas Valley, near Avila (west), and in the Toledo region (center), where nearly 900 hectares of land burned near the park. attraction of the Puy du Fou. Due to this fire, nearly 3,000 people had to be evacuated on Friday from this historic theme park, a subsidiary of the French Puy du Fou, inaugurated in March 2021.
This series of fires comes as Spain has been facing an extreme and unusual heat wave for a week for this time of year, considered by scientists to be a consequence of global warming. According to the Spanish Meteorological Agency (Aemet), very high temperatures were still expected on Saturday, especially in Toledo (41°C), and in the Ebro Valley, at the foot of the Pyrenees, with peaks at 42°C, even 43°C, expected in Zaragoza.
Spain, which this year experienced its hottest May since the beginning of the century according to the meteorological agency, has already gone through four episodes of extreme temperatures over the past ten months, including the current heat wave.